ARMENIAN FILM ABOUT KINDNESS FUELS CAUCASUS FEUD
December 8, 2012
Vahe Harutyunyan, Armenia
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Yekaterina Shitova in If Only Everyone. Photo: Supplied
ARMENIA’S entry for best foreign film at the Academy Awards was
conceived as a story of humanity triumphing over prejudice. But since
it also deals with Azerbaijan, it has become yet another element in
the toxic feud between the two nations.
The film, If Only Everyone, tells the story of an Armenian man who
helps a half-Russian, half-Armenian woman go to her father’s grave
to plant a tree. The father died in the early-1990s conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh, which pitted Armenians against Azerbaijanis.
Since a ceasefire in 1994, Karabakh has been controlled by an Armenian
administration. No peace deal has been signed, and little progress
has been made towards a final status for Karabakh. The Armenians –
who call the disputed territory Artsakh – are not prepared to cede
control, while Azerbaijan demands the restoration of its sovereignty.
The film’s protagonists have to cross the front line from Armenian-held
to Azerbaijani-held territory. There they befriend a shepherd, an
Azerbaijani, who asks them to plant a tree on his son’s grave when
they return to the Armenian side.
“This story perhaps touches on the most sensitive issue for our
nation today – Artsakh,” a synopsis on the film’s website says. “Why
did people die, what was the war about, what motivated the heroic
deeds? Some have found the answers; others are still searching.”
It is the fourth work that Armenia’s film academy has submitted for
consideration for an Oscar.
In Azerbaijan, writer Elchin Huseynbayli has stepped forward to insist
that the idea for the film was stolen from his 2010 story Dazzled by
the Sun. He described his story in an interview on the website ann.az.
“They used my story, but changed it to favour themselves. If you
watch the film, you would think we are occupying Armenian land, when
in fact it’s our land that’s occupied, and they are the occupiers …
More than half of the film coincides fully with my story.”
Huseynbayli has asked Azerbaijan’s copyright agency to inform the
academy that the film is not an original work. It’s not yet known if
they will comply with his request.
Michael Poghosyan, who wrote the screenplay for If Only Everyone,
insists the movie was conceived before Huseynbayli’s story was
published. “The story for the film was written in early 2010, and
filming began in spring 2010,” he said. “Before we wrote the story,
we met people who had lived through the war. It was after our meetings
and talks with these people that the idea of the film was born.”
MCT