|
EAST OF TURKEY, NORTH OF IRAN
Currently Zareh is developing a documentary trilogy called Living Antiquity: The Forgotten Peoples of the Near East. The series aims to rediscover three ancient and little-known communities that have survived into the present, focusing primarily on the significance of their archaic cultural and religious beliefs in a modern, changing world.
The first film in the series, East of Turkey, North of Iran is now in pre-production, with shooting to be commenced in the summer of 2004.
East of Turkey, North of Iran is the culmination of years of research and fieldwork in Armenia. Told in the form of a travelogue, it is a cinematic rediscovery of a country long hidden behind the Iron Curtain.
Building on Embers of the Sun, which looked at Armenia’s little known prehistoric monuments, East of Turkey, North of Iran focuses on the continuity of Armenia’s long pre-Christian past in contemporary culture, tracing the historical roots of the Armenians in archaic traditions, cult sites, ancient monuments and the country’s magnificent – and rarely seen – landscapes.
Included in the film is unique footage of the last epic storytellers, illiterate men and women who preserve the ancient oral tradition of Armenia’s great epic, David of Sassoon. Elements of this epic reach back thousands of years, and illuminate the strong spiritual ties rural Armenians continue to have with their natural surroundings and ancestral monuments. In our journey through the country’s diverse landscapes and villages we trace this living experience of Armenian history in archaic rituals surrounding natural rocks, springs, trees, and mountains which, incredibly, still exist in spite of the cultural impact of the genocide and 70 years of Soviet domination. Indeed, the popularity of rural cult sites and shrines often eclipses that of the church.
Our exploration unfolds against a background of deteriorating economic conditions in the countryside, where massive emigration and modernization is fast extinguishing a traditional way of life. The film contrasts ancient tradition with modernity while exploring ideas of Armenian origins and history, and examining the question of cultural identity in a post-soviet world indelibly shaped by the effects of genocide, Stalinism, and war.
|