Author: Chatinian Lara

LEVON TER-PETROSYAN: THREE HIGH-RANKING EMPLOYEES OF ARMENIAN MINISTRY OF TRADE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT HAVE JOINED OUR MOVEMENT

arminfo
2008-02-25 18:38:00

ArmInfo. "Three high ranking employees of the Armenian Ministry of
Trade and Economic Development have joined our movement", presidential
candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan said at a multi-thousand rally of his
supporters at Liberty Square in Yerevan, Monday.

These employees are Vahagn Ghazaryan, the head of the department
for cooperation with EU and the World Trade Organization, Zohrab
Hovhannisyan, the head of the department for cooperation with
interstate and international organizations, and Arman Sarukhanyan,
an expert in gold processing and jewellery.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan expressed his content with the protest action
initiated by him and his supporters. Due to the protest action, Armenia
is in the focus of the whole world’s attention. He noted that he met
Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Observation Mission Geert Ahrens, Monday, and he
will meet Foreign Minister of Slovakia, Chairman of the CoE Committee
of Ministers Jan Kubis on February 26. Ter-Petrosyan is sure that the
European Union and NATO will shortly appear with statements blaming the
actions of the Armenian authorities during the presidential election.

As regards the arrests of some oppositionists, Ter-Petrosyan believes
that whatever the authorities are undertaking is turning against
their own selves: by arresting the oppositionists they are making
heroes of them.

Ter-Petrosyan said that today the police demanded that his bodyguards
should hand over all the arms they had. "The law says that my personal
bodyguards are allowed to carry arms. If the authorities don’t like
this let them change the law," Ter-Petrosyan said.

The termless protest action at Liberty Square still continues.

YEREVAN MUNICIPALITY TO ELABORATE LOCATION PLAN FOR TRADE, SERVICE OUTLETS

ARKA
Feb 25, 2008

YEREVAN, February 25. /ARKA/. The Yerevan Municipality intends to
elaborate a location plan for trade and service outlets. Head of the
Trade and Service Department, Yerevan Municipality, Karen Gevorgyan
reported that the plan will be elaborated as part of the master plan
of Yerevan.

"At present, experts of the Yerevan Municipality are conducting a
survey for proper location of trade and service outlets," he said.

Gevorgyan also said that agricultural products are mostly sold at
four markets – Kentron, Achapnyak, Erebuni and Malatia-Sebastia.

"Agricultural products are not sold in the other eight communities of
Yerevan, though necessary conditions were created for that," he said.

Gevorgyan pointed out that 76% of the trade and service outlets are
located in the Kentron (Center) community. "This fact arouses concern
of the Yerevan administration, and consumer services facilities must
be established in the other communities as well," Gevorgyan said.

According to him, if small and medium-sized businessmen will be able
to make use of this plan, which will help them open up profitable
business in the more comfortable districts of Yerevan.

The Star-Ledger , NJ
Feb. 26, 2008

Trumpet puts gleam in NJSO concert

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
BY BRADLEY BAMBARGER
Star-Ledger Staff
CLASSICAL

The nature of an orchestra is to sublimate the individual in favor of
the group, with the spotlight mostly reserved for guest soloists. But
the best ensembles are filled with players who can shine. A couple of
times a season, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra puts one of its own
out front.

Maybe Garth Greenup can croon a tune or maybe he couldn’t carry one
in a bucket. But trumpet in hand, the NJSO principal can sing like
Sinatra. With a mute in the bell of his instrument, Greenup’s tone
was ravishing as he voiced a slow episode in Alexander Arutiunian’s
Concerto for Trumpet like a love song. The sound was dizzingly
romantic, as if nothing else existed for those few quiet minutes.

It was a wonderful change of pace to hear the trumpet out in front of
the NJSO instead of the usual piano or violin. A nearly full house at
the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark seemed to agree on
Sunday afternoon, responding with an almost surprising enthusiasm.
There aren’t that many modern trumpet concertos, with most of the
features heard on symphony programs being brassy Baroque warhorses.

Greenup, a 36-year-old Montclair resident, has been a proponent of
Arutiunian’s concerto for the B-flat trumpet since he was in school,
winning a college brass contest with it. Born in 1920, the Armenian
composer — educated in Moscow — wrote his 20-minute work in 1950 as
a memorial for a friend, the Armenian orchestra’s principal
trumpeter, who had died in World War II. But the piece wasn’t
performed publicly until 10 years later, its nationalist traces of
Armenian folk tunes making it problematic in Stalinist times.

Arutiunian’s idiom is familiar to any who know the folk-accented
works of Aram Khachaturian, the most famous of the Soviet-era
Armenian composers. Although harmonically straightforward, the piece
twists with lyrical arabesques that gave Greenup a chance to show
rhythmic grace and a burnished open-toned sound against winds darting
in the background. In the virtuosic cadenza, his top notes gleamed
like his instrument in the lights.

The conductor was Hans Graf, music director of the Houston Symphony
Orchestra. A consummate musician, Graf is also Austrian, so he knows
how Schubert’s "Unfinished" Symphony goes. But mainstream symphony
orchestras too often plane the "Unfinished" down, lessening its edge.
This piece — which links Beethoven to Brahms in its dramatic shifts
of light and dark — is one of those works that often seems, to echo
Artur Schnabel’s phrase, to be music greater than can be played.

Graf and the NJSO summoned a beautiful sound, but their Apollinian
calm left layers of the score untouched, with more rhythmic snap,
speed and even a rougher timbre required for something special.
Still, such deep-pile strings, mellow swells of brass and ideally
lyrical ensemble aren’t to be taken for granted.

If a shade too comfortable in the Schubert, the NJSO seemed pushed by
Stravinsky’s "The Firebird," particularly the 1945 suite featuring
the composer’s angular modernist retouchings of his most romantic,
coloristic score. The NJSO wasn’t immune to an out-of-tune chord here
or an early entry there, but the performance was more consistent than
a recent one by Russia’s Kirov Orchestra.

Robert Wagner’s arching bassoon solos were a pleasure, never
vinegary. And as the last big, rising-phoenix melody passed from the
strings to the rest of the orchestra, it was stirring, as it always
should be.

Bradley Bambarger may be reached at [email protected].

Zerkalo, Azerbaijan
February 22, 2008

Azerbaijan urges Europe to react to Armenia’s conduct of polls in
Karabakh

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry in a diplomatic note to major
European organizations has called to react to Armenia’s conduct of
the presidential polls in its breakaway region of Nagornyy Karabakh,
Zerkalo newspaper has said. It quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Araz
Azimov as blaming Armenia for both exploiting the occupied lands
economically and using ethnic Armenian citizens of Azerbaijan for
political ends. The paper also urged the government to react to the
scheduled hearings in the Russian State Duma on conflicts in the CIS
and inviting the Karabakh separatist leadership to Moscow over the
issue. The following is the text of Rauf Mirqadirov’s report in
independent Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo on 22 February headlined
"Azerbaijan has sent a note to the OSCE, the European Union and the
Council of Europe" and subheaded "But one should not also forget
about Russia"; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

Diplomatic note to major international bodies

Armenia should provide an explanation about organizing polling
stations and holding the voting in Nagornyy Karabakh for the Armenian
presidential election [on 19 February], [Azerbaijani] Deputy Foreign
Minister Araz Azimov has said commenting on the diplomatic note of
the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry to the OSCE, the Council of Europe
and the European Parliament, Day.az news agency has reported.

A. Azimov said that Armenia had been keeping part of the Azerbaijani
territory under control and commits illegal actions proceeding from
the fact of occupation. Those actions are connected with economic,
cultural, ecological as well as political spheres, he added.

"As you know, the economic exploitation of the lands, connected with
illegal mining of gold as well as other resources on those
territories, is under way. Cultural and religious monuments are
demolished. The illegal activities in the political sphere are
connected with the fact that Armenia uses ethnic Armenians citizens
of Azerbaijan in Nagornyy Karabakh – in the political sphere.

By establishing separatists structures on the occupied territories,
delivering weapons and setting up armed groups there, Armenia
subsequently has established military and political control and
occupied the territory which means political exploitation," he said.

At the same time, the deputy foreign minister said that this is not
the first time that Armenia carries out relevant activities on the
occupied Azerbaijani lands during the elections [in Armenia] where
ballot boxes are sent and the so-called "elections" are held there.

"In the past, reporters of the OSCE missions paid attention to
similar facts. This time, we decided to draw attention of the
international community to this fact and sent a note to international
organizations. Our appeal to the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the
European Parliament is based on reliable sources and reports. This
fact is a proof of occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by
Armenia, and we request relative international structures to take
notice of this, incorporate this in their reports and take relevant
measures," recapped A. Azimov.

Incomplete reaction

On the one hand, we are glad that our Foreign Ministry somehow reacts
to illegalities of Armenia on the Azerbaijani territories. But on the
other hand, we have to underline that this is a halved reaction.

First, the Foreign Ministry statement speaks only about the
occupation of part of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia.
However, the whole problem boils down to the fact that this is not
quite true, to be more specific, it is not the whole truth.

>From the legal point of view, Armenia has only occupied part of
Azerbaijani territories beyond Nagornyy Karabakh to which it
officially has no any claims. And Nagornyy Karabakh has been
officially annexed by Armenia since this state declared its
independence.

Russia inflaming separatists regions

For that it is enough to scan the Declaration of Independence of
Armenia signed by the first president of the country, Levon
Ter-Petrosyan. It should be recalled once again that the preamble of
the declaration of independence states clearly that the Republic of
Armenia considers Nagornyy Karabakh own territory.

Second, during many years residents of Nagornyy Karabakh, including
those, allegedly accused by us of grave crimes and put on the
international wanted list through Interpol, travel across the world
with the Armenian passports. And again our Foreign Ministry in no way
reacts to this fact…[ellipsis as published]

Third, it is high time for our Foreign Ministry to send a relative
note to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The matter is that a delegation
>From the "NKR" [unrecognized Nagornyy Karabakh republic] will be
invited to the State Duma’s March hearings on the settlement of the
conflicts in the CIS, Konstantin Zatulin, political expert and deputy
chairman of the State Duma committee for the affairs of the CIS and
relations with compatriots, has said quoted by Novosti-Armeniya.

The hearings into the issue of settlement of conflicts on the
territory of the CIS have been scheduled for March 2008 at the
Russian State Duma. "The leadership of the `NKR’ will be invited to
the hearings to put forward its position on the matter in question,"
Zatulin said.

The parliamentarian believes that for the time being Russia and
Armenia are facing a delicate issue over Kosovo and the settlement of
this conflict also concerns the "NKR" directly. The political expert
believes that Armenia and Russia have to have conduct rounds of
consultations with regard to the Kosovo issue. Two moments should be
taken heed of Mr Zatulin’s statements.

First, the State Duma is a state body of the Russian Federation and
participation of representatives of the "NKR" in any hearings,
arranged by it without preliminary agreement of this issue with
official Baku, is simply unacceptable.

Second, Mr Zatulin speaks openly on the need of coordinating actions
between Russia and Armenia on such a "delicate issue" like Kosovo
which is "directly" connected with the settlement of the conflict
around the "NKR".

In essence, the deputy chairman of the State Duma committee hints
that depending on definite development of the events, Russia would
not mind using the Kosovo precedent to put pressure on Azerbaijan,
naturally by dint of Armenia and Armenians understand this well. At
the same time, they would not mind using this factor as well as
interest in realization of own plans.

Separatist minister indirectly hints Kosovo to set a precedent

"Recognition of Kosovo’s independence by international community and
individual countries will be another factor strengthening Karabakh’s
position in the process of settlement of the conflict with
Azerbaijan," the so-called foreign minister of the "NKR", Georgiy
Petrosyan, said in a comment on the fact of declaration of
independence of Kosovo, as reported by Regnum.

"We are not supporters of drawing direct parallels between conflicts.
Though similarity of several parameters, the conflicts have
substantial differences, regarding, in particular, origins and causes
of the confrontation, format and dynamics of the conflict, the mood
of the public, mechanisms of keeping peace and maintaining security,"
Petrosyan said.

At the same time, he noted that "approaches and solutions proving
themselves while settlement of a problem can be applied in the
resolution of another one". "Rejecting this statement would be
equivalent to denying the nature of a precedent and its role in
formation of the contemporary international relations. Anyway, we
shall not look back at Kosovo or link all the hopes with the
settlement of the Kosovo problem," said G. Petrosyan.

Replying to a question about Russia’s position in the issue of the
Kosovo precedent, the so-called minister of foreign affairs of the
"NKR" said: "As one of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Russia, to all
appearances, tries to avoid statements which might cast doubt on its
impartiality as a mediator."

Public TV, Armenia
Feb. 23, 2008

TWO ARMENIAN RULING COALITION MPS DENY THEY SUPPORT OPPOSITION

Members of the Armenian parliament from the Prosperous Armenia
faction of the ruling government coalition, KaroKarapetyan and Tigran
Stepanyan, have issued a statement where they deny their support for
former President LevonTer-Petrosyan. Previously, Ter-Petrosyan’s
supporters said these two MPs had defected to Ter-Petrosyan’s
side.Ter-Petrosyan, who gained about 21 per cent of votes in the 19
February presidential election according to the CentralElectoral
Commission, has said the election was rigged. His supporters have
been rallying in protest against theelection results since 20
February. The following is the text of the report by state-owned
Armenian Public TV"Haylur" news bulletin broadcast at 1000 gmt on 23
February:

[Presenter] Karo Karapetyan and Tigran Stepanyan have expressed their
indignation about inappropriate speculationwith their names and
consider it necessary to present clarifications.

Quote [presenter reads], we officially announce that we are loyal to
the policy adopted by the Prosperous ArmeniaParty; we are standing by
the side of the chairman of our party [Gagik Tsarukyan] and will
never betray our principlesand goals. We are not those who change
camps, and attempts to involve us in various provocations are in
vain.

We just said that we are against fomenting instability in the
country, which can lead to unpredictable consequences, which the
forces standing on the platform [the rally of former President Levon
Ter-Petrosyan] decided to use as support expressed in their favour.
It is not honest.

The Prosperous Armenia Party supported the joint presidential
candidate [Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan] together withthe [ruling]
Republican Party of Armenia and we will not change our principles. As
members of the Prosperous ArmeniaParty, we officially announce that
our decision is precise and no-one has the right to make statements
on our behalf. Wehave not authorized anyone to do so.

The Prosperous Armenia Party is strong and stable and attempts to
shake it are doomed to failure, end quote.

Today, Azerbaijan
Feb 21 2008

Rasim Musabekov: "International community does not see Nagorno
Karabakh on the political map of the world"

21 February 2008 [10:39] – Today.Az

"Serbia will recognize Kosovo’s independence in the framework of the
European Union within 5 years".

The influence of events, connected with unilateral recognition of
Kosovo independence and presidential elections in Armenia, on the
resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh
was discussed at a regular session of the Public council for the
resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The due information is provided by Novosti-Azerbaijan with reference
to the press-secretariat of the Azerbaijani National Committee of the
Helsinki Civil Assembly.

Political scientist Rasim Musabekov noted, commenting on the Kosovo
issue that it depends on the preservation of regional balance.

"As for the Karabakh issue, its solution had not been found befire
the Kosovo. The difference between the said conflicts is that the
international community sees Kosovo on the political map of the
world, unlike Nagorno Karabakh.

I think Russia and the United States have different approaches to the
issue. America tries to influence its allies, raising ethnic
problems. Russia also does not want the settlement of the problem in
an attempt to preserve the quo status.

Unlike them the European Union is for the resolution of such
conflicts. It should be reminded that our lands were occupied not
formally or on basis of any principles but with the use of Russian
weapon. In this connection I consider that we should not support
Russia’s position on the issue", Musabekov noted.

"We have a definite basis in the Karabakh issue, the world learned
about Azerbaijan in connection with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
NATo was terminating Serbs, while now Washington reports termination
of Albanians, and this make it impossible for the representative of
both nationalities to co-exist peacefully. The main purpose of the
United States is to hinder the development of its allies. Washington
has no permanent friends, it has permanent interests. In this sense
Albanians could be compared with the Karabakh Armenians. It is
possible to return Karabakh theoretically, if an enlightenment work
is carried out", he added.

URL:

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Feb 21 2008

HEAD OF RA PERMANENT COMMISSION ON EUROINTEGRATION: IN FUTURE ARMENIA
RECOGNIZE KOSOVO’S INDEPENDENCE

YEREVAN, 21.02.08. DE FACTO. Armenia will pause for a while, after
which it will undoubtedly recognize Kosovo’s independence, the head
of RA Permanent Commission on Eurointegration Avet Adonts told IA
REGNUM, underscoring it was his own impression.
In his words, Armenia has to undertake all possible steps to
neutralize negative consequences of the recognition, in part, the
possible coolness of relations with Serbia, which are at a high
level. Commenting the question if it is possible that after Kosovo’s
recognition Yerevan will request that the international community
undertake retaliatory steps – NKR’s recognition, Adonts noted that,
judging by the Armenian party’s sentiments, it has no intention of
abusing the issue and trying to gamble on it. `I do not think that
Yerevan will put forward such requests, I would rule out the
possibility of such statement of the question’, Adonts stated.
As a whole, according to the deputy’s estimations, on the current
stage Kosovo has already become a precedent and, what is of extreme
importance, a precedent in the very heart of Europe. `Undoubtedly,
the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and Kosovo issue have certain
qualitative differences – what was done in Kosovo a few days ago was
realized in the NKR over 16 years ago. In 1991 the NKR adopted the
Independence declaration, a referendum was conducted’, Adonts noted.

KARABAKH CONFLICT RANKS FIRST AMONG CONFLICTS IN POST-SOVIET EURASIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.02.2008 17:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ With its consequences, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
is not only the major regional conflict at the post-soviet space but
is also an example for Georgians, Ossetians, Abkhazians, Moldavians
and Transnistrians, said Sergei Markedonov, head of the interethnic
relations department at Moscow’s Institute of Political and Military
Analysis.

"According to Swedish expert Svante Cornell, the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict ranks the first among the conflicts in post-soviet
Eurasia. This is the only conflict spoken about as a threat of a
third world war," the Russian expert said.

"The Nagorno Karabakh conflict is the only conflict which set off
two independent states against each other. Furthermore, it is raging
in immediate proximity to three states which claim the role of the
regional power – Russia, Turkey and Iran," Markedonov said.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION URGES TO DECLARE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION INVALID

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.02.2008 19:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian opposition delivered an ultimatum to
the authorities. They urge to annul the results of the presidential
election, schedule a new election and provide air on the Armenian
Public Television. They also demand to initiate criminal cases against
those responsible for falsifications of the election process and
beating of opposition representatives.

Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters put the blame on "the relatives of Deputy
Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, RPA faction member Ruben Hayrapetyan
and head of Kotayk region administration Kovalenko Shahgaldyan.

They called on students to boycott classes and promised to look
in every dismissal taken place during the recent months, IA Regnum
reports.

The oppositionists said they will hold protest actions round the
clock. Ter-Petrosyan’s election staff head Nikol Pashinyan said
Liberty Square will become "the headquarters of protest actions."

Artur Baghdassaryan’s staff head Heghine Bisharyan also addressed
the demonstrators, who continue their action although it was declared
unauthorized.

OSCARS 2008: THE 100 BEST FILMS – DOCUMENTARY AND WORLD CINEMA

Daily Telegraph
12:01am GMT 21/02/2008
UK

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. Or you may angrily demand to know why
we’ve snubbed Meg Ryan. In honour of next week’s Oscars we present
our own highly subjective, yet infinitely debatable nominations for
the greatest films of all time

100 best films: Drama and thriller / action

100 best films: Comedy and horror

100 best films: Kids and musicals

100 best films: Romance and animation Oscars coverage in full
Documentary

1. American Splendor (2003)

Fact and fiction are deftly muddled in this character study of
doomy cartoonist Harvey Pekar, directed by Robert Pulcini. Half a
dramatisation of his graphic novel Our Cancer Year, with Paul Giamatti
(pre Sideways) as Pekar and Hope Davis as his wife, Joyce, the film
also devotes screentime to interviews with the real-life Mrs and
Mrs Pekar.

American Splendor (2003) 2. The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)

Four hours on the Vichy government’s involvement in Nazi
atrocities. Marcel Ophuls’s mix of newsreel and interview makes for
a film of rare intelligence and integrity.

3. American Movie (1999)

Movies about making movies tend to be overrated. Not this one, perhaps
because it doesn’t follow the production of a classic. Instead, it
tracks the ups and downs on Coven, a grubby horror shot by redneck
auteur Mark Borchardt, funded by his wonderfully crusty father.

4. Touching the Void (2003)

Superlative reconstruction of Joe Simpson’s and Simon Yates’s perilous
trek up, and particularly down, an unforgiving Andean peak.

5. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

Queasy investigation into the case of a middle-class Jewish family
whose father and son were charged with child abuse in the mid-1980s.

6. Spellbound (2002)

Jeffrey Blitz’s Spelling Bee crowdpleaser is gripping and revealing.

7. Ã~Jtre et Avoir (2002)

More disarming tots in Nicolas Philibert’s sophisticated look at a
year in the life of an infant school in rural France.

8. Hearts and Minds (1974)

Peter Davis’s Vietnam documentary cuts together talking heads and
eyewitness footage to difficult, brilliant effect.

9. My Kid Could Paint That (2007)

Another documentary in which the director, Amir Bar-Lev, finds himself
unhappily involved. This one starts as the story of a four-year-old
painting prodigy in New York, but gets interesting after allegations
that Marla may have received more than encouragement from her amateur
artist father.

10. Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006)

Exactly what a concert film should be: the concert, and nothing
else. This one, directed by Jonathan Demme, records a performance in
Nashville of Young’s 2005 album Prairie Wind, taped days before his
op to remove a brain tumour.

World

1. The Battleship Potemkin (USSR, 1925)

The film that introduced an astonished world to Sergei Eisenstein’s
theory of montage (dynamic editing for political effect). The story
of the abortive Russian revolution of 1905 still has immense impact,
thanks to the unforgettable ‘Odessa Steps’ sequence.

2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (France, 1928)

Made in France by the Danish director Carl Dreyer, this was one of
the greatest silent films. It depicts the trial and execution through
close-ups resembling medieval portraits. And the spiritual quality
of Maria Falconetti’s Joan seems beyond acting.

3. La Règle du Jeu (France, 1939)

All French society gathers for a country-house party that proves to
be on the eve of the war. Time has lent Jean Renoir’s film an extra
dimension, but it always seemed the quintessence of art.

4. Tokyo Story (Japan, 1953)

Yasujiro Ozu’s study of family relations and the irreconcilable
differences between generations is one of the most moving of all
pictures. It offers universal truths, a spare, almost ascetic camera
style and matchless acting from Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara.

5. Seven Samurai (Japan, 1954)

Akira Kurosawa’s medieval epic achieves an almost Shakespearean range,
embracing personal pride, professional skill and social distinctions.

There’s Falstaffian humour, spectacular battles in the rain and the
sense of a master film-maker at the peak of his powers.

6. Pather Panchali (India, 1955)

Another film about generations – the very old and the very young. Set
in Bengal, it was Satyajit Ray’s first film, establishing him as a
director in the great humanist tradition, with a superb pictorial
sense.

7. Smiles of a Summer Night (Sweden, 1955)

This apparently frivolous comedy is Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece
because, like Mozart’s operas or Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, it
says something profound about love. It’s taken 50 years for the penny
to drop.

8. Un Condamné a Mort s’est échappé (France, 1956)

In Robert Bresson’s austere account of the wartime escape of André
Devigny, the soundtrack is Mozart’s C Minor Mass, the alternative
title is ‘The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth’. It might as easily have
been called ‘God Helps Those Who Help Themselves’.

9. Andrei Rublev (USSR, 1966)

Not a conventional biography of the 15th-century icon painter, but
eight imaginary episodes from his life, evoking his spirituality
and symbolic importance at the time of the Tartar invasions. Andrei
Tarkovsky’s troubled epic looks to God as saviour rather than Lenin.

10. The Color of Pomegranates (USSR, 1969)

Sergei Parajanov was imprisoned in Russia for this intensely visual
film about the 18th-century Armenian poet Sayat Nova. It delivers a
torrent of breathtaking images.

–Boundary_(ID_8r2+0XSV+T0Z0269cfV9bA)–