It is rather fitting that such a tribute was screened at the very festival Khachatryan founded over 20 years ago.

Harutyun Khachatryan is perhaps one of the most famous and recognisable Armenian filmmakers alive today, best known for revolutionising Armenian documentary film and for founding the Golden Apricot International Film Festival over 20 years ago. In Dance of Life, however, the camera is turned the other way around — Khachatryan himself becoming the main focus and subject for Armenian director Arsen Aghajanyan’s latest documentary.

The film is segmented into various ‘novellas’, as Aghajanyan terms them, the majority of which are derived from Khachatryan’s most famous films and focusing on both some aspect of Khachatryan’s life as well as topics related to the relevant film. For example, in the first novella titled ‘The Poet’s Path’, derived from Return of the Poet (2005), the camera follows Khachatryan as he returns to his hometown of Akhalkalaki in Georgia’s Samstkhe-Javakheti plateau. The focus jumps between Khachataryan recounting tales from his childhood to the village and plateau today, the work of poet Ashugh Jivani, whose statue was the focus of Khachatryan’s 2005 film, tying everything together.

In a later novella, titled ‘The Promised Land’ after Khachatryan’s Return to the Promised Land (1991), the camera follows as Khachatryan returns to the village where filming took place, meeting the family he filmed over 30 years ago. Aghajanyan contrasts footage from the original film with shots of the family today, now with six grandchildren, yet still living in similar, poor conditions. While perhaps unintended, this is a chapter where the success Khachatryan has achieved from his once similarly rural origins now appears at times to make him condescending or unrelatable.

While this segmentation of the documentary makes for very poetic storytelling, it also makes for a very fractured narrative. Past and present are all intertwined together, with certain scenes repeating across various chapters, which can be confusing and jarring for viewers, especially those not familiar with Khachataryan’s entire oeuvre.

One throughline is a train journey Aghajanyan and Khachataryan take, that makes up the main interview throughout the film. The shaky, handheld camera appears amateurish at times, especially as it struggles to stay on Khachataryan’s face amidst the bouncing over the train tracks. Yet, footage of the other passengers, especially of a drunk man who comes up to Khachataryan, later inviting him to his home, provides some interesting comparisons to who Khachataryan could have become under different circumstances.

The most emotional chapter, titled ‘Marietta’, covers how Khachataryan met and married the love of his life, his wife Mari. It is a chapter that humanises Khachataryan much more than the rest of the film, where he often appears aloof, or the stereotype of an auteur director, claiming that dialogue is only necessary for a poorly shot film, and that the festival concept is well-past its time, having become, in his words, entirely self-serving. It is also the only chapter where Mari gets a voice, otherwise appearing in the film as an impeccably dressed shadow following her husband on his journey.

Aghajanyan’s tribute to Khachataryan succeeds in showing the latter as a complex figure, well-respected by everyone he meets, yet also still an artist and true individual at heart, still striving to forge his own path and identity. For viewers interested in snapshots of Armenian culture and history while gaining insight into one of the country’s most famous filmmakers, then Aghajanyan’s documentary will be of strong interest. For those who prefer a more narrative, focused piece, however, or for a general audience less familiar with Khachataryan’s work, it is perhaps not a priority.

Film details: Dance of Life (2026) by Arsen Aghajanyan. The film was screened on 14 July 2026 in Yerevan as part of the 23rd Golden Apricot International Film Festival.

https://oc-media.org/review-dance-of-life-a-poetic-tribute-to-armenian-filmmaker-harutyun-khachatryan/

Arpine Soghoyan, a doctor who had a heated exchange with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over Nagorno-Karabakh before the June elections, has been dismissed from her job. While authorities claimed her dismissal was part of staff layoffs, Soghoyan has alleged it was politically motivated and vowed to appeal the decision.

The incident took place in late May, when Pashinyan became involved in several heated exchanges with members of the public while campaigning. He later claimed the arguments were part of an organised attempt by the opposition to provoke him.

At the time, Soghoyan, an obstetrician-gynaecologist, accused Pashinyan of ‘stealing [her] homeland’ and ‘destroying an entire generation’, referring to the victims of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War and subsequent escalations.

Soghoyan’s brother, Lieutenant Colonel Hrant Papikyan, went missing during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Shortly after the incident, reports emerged that the head of her clinic in Yerevan had asked her to submit a resignation letter, though her daughter, Tatevik Soghoyan, said no resignation had been submitted.

In turn, Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan ruled out at the time ‘that any person would be fired for their political views’.

Despite Avinyan’s assurances, Soghoyan was dismissed roughly two months after the exchange.

The news was first shared on Monday by Tatevik Soghoyan, who said that after ‘21 years of impeccable service’, her mother had been dismissed ‘on the grounds of staff cuts’.

‘In other words, the polyclinic will continue to have a women’s consultation department, but it will no longer have a head of department. Thousands of women from an entire administrative district [of Yerevan], including expectant mothers, will be left without the oversight of a highly experienced department head’, Tatevik Soghoyan wrote in a Facebook post.

She described the official explanation — a lack of funding — as ‘ridiculous when compared with the billions of drams the municipality spends on lavish festivities’, without elaborating which events she was implying.

Adding that her mother’s spirit was high and her employment prospects were good, she called the dismissal ‘yet another vivid example of the “bastion of democracy” that [claims] to protect our freedom of speech’.

In its comment to the media, the Yerevan Municipality stated that staffing cuts had been introduced across healthcare institutions under its authority following the introduction of mandatory health insurance on 1 January 2026.

‘The retention of additional positions creates an extra financial burden, including the position of “head of department” ’, the municipality said.

Speaking to RFE/RL, Soghoyan rejected the explanation, claiming it was illogical and vowed to challenge her dismissal in court.

According to RFE/RL, the dismissal notice stated that Soghoyan ‘could not be offered another position because of her health condition’. Soghoyan, however, said she had no health problems and had never missed work because of illness. She also questioned why staff positions were being cut when the number of patients had not decreased, arguing that the introduction of mandatory health insurance had, if anything, increased doctors’ workloads.

‘Following Soghoyan’s dismissal, just three doctors will be responsible for providing care to more than 10,000 women’, RFE/RL reported.

A series of similar dismissals

Soghoyan’s dismissal comes amid a series of claims by public-sector employees that they have faced politically motivated retaliation following the June elections.

Days after the elections, Gohar Vardanyan, a local civil official in the border village of Kirants, said she was pressured to submit a resignation letter after publishing a Facebook post disputing claims that the strong showing of Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party in the village actually reflected real local support.

Shortly afterwards, Edgar Ghazaryan, a parliamentary candidate from Strong Armenia, accused the authorities of targeting his family by dismissing his sister, Lilit Ghazaryan, from the state-run Drug Expertise Centre, where she had worked for more than 30 years.

According to Ghazaryan, the day after the election, his sister ‘was instructed’ by the Health Ministry to resign, and after refusing to do so, ‘she was unlawfully dismissed’. Management instead abolished one of the centre’s two deputy director positions, effectively dismissing her.

Speaking at a press briefing following the dismissal, Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan rejected the allegations, insisting that the decision had no political motivation and saying the accusations were ‘manipulations’.

Similar allegations have also emerged from Yerevan State University (YSU).

Earlier in July, lawyer Ruben Melikyan, who had taught at the university’s Faculty of Law for over 20 years, said he had been notified that his contract would not be renewed, which effectively stops him from teaching from September.

Melikyan, who represents opposition figures and is a vocal critic of the authorities, said he believed the decision was politically motivated.

He also told RFE/RL that two other lecturers with opposition views — Shushan Vardanyan and Alen Ghrevondyan — had been informed that their contracts would not be renewed.

Earlier, the YSU decided to dissolve its Department of Foreign Literature, headed by Anush Sedrakyan, which claimed that her opposition stance had contributed to the department’s closure, while the university denied that the decision was politically motivated.