GETTING RID OF THE IMPERIALIST GAZE: GEORGIAN FILMS WITH ARMENIAN, AZERI CHARACTERS DISCUSSED IN YEREVAN
epress.am
03.26.2012
The audience in Yerevan mainly enjoyed the Georgian films with the word
“Karabakh” in the title but which were not about the conflict.
The audience was rapt with attention and in the discussion following
the screening recalled even the smallest details and scenes from the
films. However, the audience never did admit its admiration of the
films, preferring instead to focus on the “mistakes” of the filmmakers
of Trip to Karabakh 1 and 2, “Armenians being shown as uneducated”
and the “deliberate distortion of political realities.” In any case,
this Karabakh was not about Armenians or Azeris. Simply a film is
shot in Georgia and there is no pretending that no one other than
them lives in their place of residence. But more on that below.
The screening was part of the STOP Festival organized by the Caucasus
Center for Peace-Making Initiatives, which in 2010, was pressured for
its attempt to organize a screening of Azerbaijani films in Armenia.
On several occasions, human rights activist and festival organizer
Center Georgy Vanyan was refused space to screen the films, as a
result of which the screenings were held in people’s homes.
The first “trip” – “From Mimino till Today: Transformation of the
South Caucasus” – was made by Conservative Party of Armenia leader
Mikael Hayrapetyan and human rights activist Luiza Poghosyan.
Images of modern Georgian cinema broke out of Caucasians’ Soviet model
of behavior. Hayrapetyan emphasized that Georgia, unlike Armenia,
has taken a step forward in getting rid of the rules imposed on it by
imperialism. He saw this in the film, which he didn’t consider from
an artistic point of view, and he sees this when travelling to Georgia.
According to the politician, it is proposed Mimino and Rubik jan
(characters in the 1977 Soviet film “Mimino”, pictured below) to get
into a stupid fight about the best water and dolma in the world and to
compete in a restaurant for the right to request a song from mediocre
musicians. Hayrapetyan was sure that the discussion of pressing issues
and the colonialists’ policies would turn careless South Caucasians
into dissidents and lead them straight to the gulag.
Human rights defender Luiza Poghosyan, in turn, recalled Zurab
Tsereteli’s “monument to Georgian-Russian-Armenian friendship”
(pictured below) dedicated to the main characters of “Mimino” (played
by Georgian actor Vakhtang Kikabidze, Russian actor Eugene Leonov,
and Armenian actor Frunzik Lazarian), which was banned in Moscow and
was instead erected in 2011 in Tbilisi’s Armenian quarter. A “copy”
of this work was erected in Dilijan, Armenia, the same year. In
both sculptures, the Russian actor stands between the Armenian and
Georgian actors.
In Tbilisi, the monument was erected in Avlabari (Havlabar). The
opening ceremony was attended by Georgian President Mikail Saakashvili
and his wife. There was also a protest of about 10 people shouting
“Stop Zurab!” Poghosyan said she would join the protest against
reinstating Soviet traditions of Armenian-Georgian mediated relations.
The Russian reporter in the film “Trip to Karabakh” regularly asks
the Georgian guy who accidentally finds himself among Armenians
also freed from Azerbaijani captivity, “Who are you? How did you get
here? Do Georgians like Armenians?” He answers, “Leave me alone. What
business is it of yours? We’ll deal with our issues ourselves!” Asked
“Don’t you like Russians?”, Gio says, “I don’t like scoundrels.” But
then they have sex.
Poghosyan also pointed out, “it seems the images of Armenians are
cut out of cardboard.” Georgians’ contact with Armenians as such
doesn’t occur, while Georgians’ contact with Azerbaijani soldiers is
more human, despite the beatings on the first day of captivity. The
Armenians call their new quiet comrade “brother” and drink toasts
to their ancestors of the Christian Caucasus, but criticize his
country for the civil war, for the fact that “Georgians are shooting
at Georgians.” He seems free to do whatever he wants but in fact is
under constant supervision. In the end, he takes the Russian reporter
hostage, grabs two Azerbaijani prisoners of war and flees to save
his friend. One of the Armenians says after him, “I told you he was
a son of a bitch.”
During the discussion following the film, the comments began with
the fact that the film was easy to watch, the characters were well
developed (except from the Armenians, it seems). When audience members
began to analyze the film from the view of the Georgian filmmakers’
sympathies to one side of the Karabakh conflict, they approached the
minute issues that can be seen if only this aspect of the film is
observed. For example, a secondary school teacher said that Armenians
in Azerbaijani captivity had cigarettes, and there were no signs
of beating on their faces, while Azerbaijani soldiers in Armenian
captivity asked for something to eat and were severely beaten.
Along the same line, the filmmakers can be accused of having
anti-Armenian sentiments: the Azerbaijani soldiers have access
to drugs, they eat kebab (while Armenians eat canned food), their
commanders are former suppliers (while in the case of Armenians, they
are professional soldiers, having fought in Azerbaijan), and so on…
>From now until Apr. 8 the films will be shown and discussed in Gyumri,
Vanadzor, Noyemberyan and Chambarak.