YEREVAN GOLDEN APRICOT FILM FESTIVAL, 2014 ~ «Ոսկե Ծիրան» Միջազգային Կինոփառատոն>

By Alex DELONIAN, Yerevan
 

The eleventh annual installment of the Yerevan International Film Festival opened last night with a grandiose red carpet invitational gala at the cavernous Yerevan opera house preceded by a screening of a digitally restored print of the legendary 1968 film “The Color of Pomegranates” by legendary Armenian filmmaker Sergei Paradjanov. The name and image of Paradjanov (1924 -1990) hovers over the entire festive, his flying figure topping the entrance to the Moskva Cinema which is the main festival venue, the official catalogue and just about everything else connected with the festival.

Paradjanov, who was a maverick Soviet film director constantly hounded and persecuted by the Soviet establishment, is a national hero here in Armenia with a museum devoted entirely to him alone. Last year noted French Armenian actor Serge Avedikian co-directed a full-scale biographical feature film about Paradjanov, in which he himself undertook the role as a personal homage to the late Armenian screen magician. A remarkable makeup job and canny performance produced an uncanny resemblance to a unique real life personality. Avedikian’s Paradjanov is no hagiography since Paradjanov himself was far from a saint, but the portrayal is probably close to the manner in which this directorial wildman and loose cannon might have preferred to have himself seen — warts and all. This Very offbeat biopic was submitted as the Ukrainian entry to the Oscars this year and was the big GAIFF Closer at the tenth edition last year. Paradjanov whose abstract non-linear films were regarded as provocations by censors who coudn’t even understand them, spent much time in Soviet jails which limited his total output, but all of his films are regarded as landmarks of one kind or another and will all be shown here, an unusual opportunity to catch up with the rarely seen works of a little known cinema artist.
At the tenth Festival last year the guest of honor was French Armenian lsinger/actor Charles Azavour and his most famous film, “Shoot The Piano Player” by François Truffaut, 1960, was screened in a restored print. Today on the plaza in from of the Cinema Moskva a walk of type fame plaque is prominently embedded among the flagstones. Azavour (original name: Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնավուրյան) turned ninety (90!) in May and is still active on the stage ~ the most beloved French chansonnier and undoubtedly the mostt famous Armenian in the world today
In addition to a full Paradjanov retrospective the 2014 Golden Apricot Fest is presenting career awards and partial retrospectives of directors Amos Gitai of Israel, Jia Zhangke of mainland China, Kim Ki-Duk of south Korea, and 80 year old Georgian director, Otar Iosseliani, although he is listed as French since he has worked there for many years.
While these are not exactly household names among the general filmgoing public they are all what might be termed “fully annointed heads” at all major film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Pusan, where their films are regularly shown, often in competition for the big prizes, and have taken home many over the years.
This festival started in 2004 when Canadian Armenian director Atom Egoyan’s Genocide epic “Ararat” was presented and awarded with the first Golden Apricot.
Egoyan became the honorary President of the festival, his name adding some. extra international clout. He is not here this year only because he is busy elsewhere with the shooting of his latest film.
If the awards here known as “Golden Apricots” may sound somewhat fanciful or even frivolous to uninitiated outsiders, it should be pointed out that Armenian apricots are so special that they receive an official church blessing here each year. Many festivals name their awards for products or natural items associated symbolically with their geographical territories: the Conchas (Sea Shells) of coastal San Sebastian, the Crystal Globes (of famous Bohemian cut glass) of Karlovy Vary, or the Golden Bears of Berlin, a city named for the furry mammals of species Ursidae who shared that area with the Teutonic Barbarian ancestors of the current two legged denizens.
In passing it may be mentioned that Germany prevailed over Argentina yesterday 1~0, to bring the Futbol World Cup back to Berlin — A moral victory of sorts in that there are probably more unrehabilitated Nazis living in Argentina than in Berlin today.