Epress.am News from Armenia
Organizers of the 23.5 Turkish Film Festival decided to hold this year’s festival on Mar. 30 at 4 pm in Armenia’s third-largest city, Vanadzor, which is about a two hours’ drive from Yerevan, at the last moment in order to avoid any problems with the organization of the event that might arise.
The first festival took place in 2009 in Yerevan, when obstacles to organizing the festival were fewer. At the time, the festival coincided with the start of Armenian-Turkish “Football Diplomacy.” The country’s leaders at all levels spoke of “the inevitability of establishing relations with its neighbors.” Media was actively covering peace initiatives between the two countries.
However, diplomacy failed and the authorities of both countries returned to a policy of recriminations. The number of Armenian-Turkish peace initiatives drastically reduced, while media coverage reduced to a minimum.
What Worried the Organizers
This is the second screening of these films, with the first screening taking place in Mar. 2010 in Yerevan. This second screening was to have taken place last December. Hundreds of invitations were distributed and Vanadzor residents were encouraged to attend.
However, the city launched a campaign against the festival, spreading misinformation that what was actually going to be shown were Azerbaijani films, and the police, together with the National Security Service, were to have kept a close eye on festival-goers.
Prior to the start of the December screening, police and individuals assumed to be police in civilian clothes blocked the entrance to the theater. Hundreds of attendees thus were unable to watch the films.
Festival organizer and human rights activist Georgy Vanyan explained: “This time I decided to repay my debt to Vanadzor audiences. We put up the poster just today so that we don’t give anyone time to obstruct and prevent the festival [from taking place]. We notified people of the festival through old and tested methods: we walked the streets, went into schools, universities, homes and invited people to the festival.”
The “unsafe” films were screened in the former Culture House. Now the venue is a cinema that was repaired a couple of months ago. The theater director, a well-built man in his fifties and with a shaved head named Armen, was the only one among many venue owners and officials who watched the films ahead of time, and not finding anything in them that would be prohibited by Armenian laws, allowed the show to go on.
On the possible consequences, he and his friends, who are professional builders and renovated the theater themselves, didn’t wish to comment. “This is our city. If even here we have to fear everything, then it’s better not to live. And I would just be happy if my fellow citizens, watching the films, learn something new and broaden their horizons,” said one of Armen’s friends, a builder named Tigran.
Screening
Passers-by often stopped at the billboard advertising the event outside the theater and, though it said on the poster that entrance was free, asked about ticket prices. One girl, among a group of girls aged 13–14, tore off a piece of the poster. When asked why they’re ruining the poster, one of the girls said: “It wasn’t us; it was those buffoons. I swear on my father’s grave, it wasn’t us.”
The 400-seater hall was half-filled. Most of the audience were schoolchildren and students, who often whispered during the show and reacted vehemently to what was happening on the screen, laughing and commenting on what they saw.
The screening of the 10 films selected by the jury lasted approximately 50 minutes.
Outside the screening room were 10 small fishbowls in which festival-goers could vote for their favorite film by placing a piece of paper in the bowl with that film’s name. The 23.5 Turkish Film Festival ended with the voting. Organizers have not yet disclosed the results, but from comparing the pieces of paper in the bowls, it can be assumed that the “Artist,” “Sounds of the City” and “Fork” were the top favorites.
