10 TIMES BETTER: GOLDEN APRICOT CELEBRATES DECADE OF FILM FESTIVITIES
ARTS AND CULTURE | 11.07.13 | 16:24
NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
ArmeniaNow
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
Golden Apricot Yerevan 10th International Film Festival has turned
the Armenian capital into one big cinema for one week, where film
masters visiting from different corners of the world present their
creations, both features and documentaries.
Besides the traditional “Yerevan Premiers”, “Retrospectives”, and
“Tributes” programs, this year’s jubilee edition of the festival
also features three special programs: “Georgian Film Week”,
“Sister Festivals” and “Armenians: view from inside and outside”.
“Yerevan Premieres” of the 10th Golden Apricot includes the
Paradise… trilogy by Ulrich Seidl, the first film of which
Paradise:Love was screened during last year’s Golden Apricot and in
2012 was nominated for the Cannes Festival’s Golden Palm (Palm
d’Or) award; this year’s participants are Paradise:Faith and
Paradise:Hope. The program also features The Girl and Death by Jos
Stelling from the Netherlands.
Russian Films Days program has launched with Boris Khlebnikov’s Till
Night Do Us Part. The program is held in cooperation with the Russian
culture ministry and “Kinofest” production company and will present
five other films: Celestial Life of the Meadow Mari, I Will be Next
to You, Intimate Parts, Princess’ War and the Major.
“I am very happy to be in Yerevan to take part in the 10th Golden
Apricot, it is very symbolic. We have submitted such films that are
close to our cultures. People in Russia are familiar with the
Armenian culture and we are very fond of it,” says head of the
RosSotrudnichestvo (Russian Cooperation) representation Victor
Krivopuskov.
“Yerevan Premiers” also includes Hannah Arendt (2012) by German
director Margarethe von Trotta.
“It is a very touching film telling about a Jewish philosopher of
German descent Hannah Arendt. She was the great philosopher Martin
Heidegger’s big love, also his disciple, then secretary,” says the
author of the film.
According to the festival’s creative director Susanna Harutyunyan,
Golden Apricot is regarded as a sister-festival by world-known Busan
and Rotterdam IFFs. So this year a special program will present films
from their official selections. The opening will be by Busan festival
president, Korean actor, director Kim Dong Ho’s film. Also, Tamara
Stepanyan’s Embers will be screened, which last year won the Best
Documentary award in Busan.
In the festival’s International Documentary category Swiss director
Laurence Perigaud presents his Between Two Spirits, telling about
human transformations.
“The main character is Chris who is neither a man nor a woman, but
feels rather like both, caught between the two sexes. Turning 60 this
management professor takes courage to do the biggest change of his
life – a gender reassignment surgery in Thailand, then a year of
femininity training in Switzerland to complete his transformation
into a woman,” tells the director.
French Armenian director Arto Pehlivanian’s V…for Verneiul presents
exclusive archive material about prominent director Henri Verneiul’s
life (Armenian name Ashot Malakian).
“There are no replicas, there was a lot to be said and I think it
worked. Verneiul’s films lead people to a shock, to a new
intellectual platform. He was a greatest of masters to me,” says the
film director.
World-famous singer, song writer, actor Charles Aznavour’s star has
been placed in the square named after him. The “Retrospectives”
include three films with Aznavour starring in them: Ararat (Atom
Egoyan, 2002), Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut, 1960) and
Taxi for Tobruk (Denys de la Patelliere, 1961).
In the days to follow “Parajanov Thaler” awards will be granted to
Margarette von Trotta, Istvan Szabo, Nerses Hovhannissyan and Jos
Stelling at special events of Jubilees and Yerevan Premieres. Many of
the guests have agreed to hold Master Classes as part of the
Festival.
The jubilee edition of Golden Apricot has received 1,200 applications
for participation from 94 countries (vs 67 in 2012). Aram
Khachaturian’s 110th, Nerses Hovhannissyan’s 75th and Artavazd
Peleshyan’s 75th anniversaries are part of the “Tributes” program.
http://armenianow.com/arts_and_culture/47596/golden_apricot_film_festival_atom_egoyan_charles_aznavour