His documentaries ‘The Eternals’ and ‘For the Lost’ won awards over the past two weeks.
The Eternals received the Grand Prize at the 15th Internacional Festival Sognos da Noite in Lisbon (Portugal)
Eternals are those who suffer from the melancholy of eternity. Convinced that death cannot get the better of their lives, they believe they are condemned to err until the day they will be liberated from their existence. This film is a story of wandering and escape, in the confines of Nagorno-Karabagh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan. Inhabited by the ghosts of genocide and the war that has been ongoing for more than twenty years, the characters that stray through this film carry in them the melancholy of the eternals.
The jury gave this comment about the film: “The Eternals is awarded for the awe and discovery of a good subject. A film that moves the viewers both spiritually and personally beyond words, with moments of pure commotion and trance. The beauty contained in this film along with the respect of the subject so carefully portrayed on screen is what we believe making movies is all about, infusing us with longing to see more !”
For the Lost received another prize, at the Festival Cinemistica in Grenada (Spain).
The film’s title is ‘Les Tourmentes’ in French and torment is a snowstorm that disorientates and leads astray. It is also the name given to melancholy caused by hard, long winters. Where the torment blows, men erect bells to call back the lost. And shepherds, while grazing, invoke lost or forgotten souls through their flocks. Guided by a flock’s bells and the invocations of the lost, this film is a journey through torment; the torment of the mountains and the winter, bodies and souls and torment which reveals that what nature cannot obtain from our reason, it takes from our madness.
The Eternals and For the Lost are produced by Cobra Films.
