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Moscow International Film Festival
"The Lighthouse" was shot on location in Armenia.
Growing Up in a Trouble Spot
Director Maria Saakyan's debut feature film "The Lighthouse" reflects her own childhood in war-torn Armenia.
By Anna Malpas
Published: June 23, 2006
Passengers at an Armenian train station in Maria Saakyan's film "The Lighthouse" are confronted with a handwritten sign saying "there is no train." Ironically, the director had the same problem when she traveled from Moscow to shoot the wistful war drama on location.
"During the war, they took apart the rails and never put them together again," the 25-year-old director said after a press screening of her film at Mosfilm on Wednesday. That made transporting camera equipment to Armenian mountain villages "very expensive," she said.
The film, which is taking part in the Perspectives section of the Moscow International Film Festival, is the debut feature for Saakyan, a graduate of Moscow's VGIK film school. Its story of a girl visiting her grandparents in Armenia, then finding herself unable to leave because of war, is one that is close to the director, who fled her native Yerevan at age 12.
"That little piece of earth is very dear to me," she said, recalling that when her family left Armenia in the 1990s, she begged them to let her stay. "I don't know whether I managed to convey that feeling, that emotion, at least a little bit."
While she talked, her young daughter pleaded with her for candy, and Saakyan spoke of her feeling that she would never return to live in Armenia. "Now, I realize that I can't go back because I already have my family here, I had my education here. ... I have opportunities to work here."
The film's screenwriter, 27-year-old VGIK student Givi Shavgulidze, drew on similar experiences, since he was forced to leave Abkhazia in the early 1990s. "He can't get back to his house at all because now there are other people living there," Saakyan said.
"The Lighthouse" remains vague about which Caucasus conflict it depicts, although its apparent subtext is the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Saakyan stressed that the story was not about a specific war. "In the 1990s, there was a war in Georgia, there was a war in Armenia. ... The whole of the former Soviet Union was covered in hot spots."
The film stars veteran actors as Armenian villagers, including Sofiko Chiaureli, who acted in Sergei Paradzhanov's "Color of Pomegranates," and Sos Sarkisyan, who played a doctor in "Solaris" by Andrei Tarkovsky. "They all agreed very quickly when they heard what the film was about," the director said. "They also care about this theme."
The film received a grant from the Netherlands-based Hubert Bals Fund, which supports up-and-coming filmmakers as part of the Rotterdam film festival. It is the first full-length film for Saakyan, who previously made an almost wordless short called "The Farewell" that won several festival awards. She described "The Lighthouse" as her "first attempt to work with words and a little bit with history."
"The Lighthouse" plays Mon. at 6 p.m. and Tues. at 6 p.m. at Oktyabr, located at 24 Novy Arbat. Metro Smolenskaya.
"The Lighthouse" was shot on location in Armenia.
Growing Up in a Trouble Spot
Director Maria Saakyan's debut feature film "The Lighthouse" reflects her own childhood in war-torn Armenia.
By Anna Malpas
Published: June 23, 2006
Passengers at an Armenian train station in Maria Saakyan's film "The Lighthouse" are confronted with a handwritten sign saying "there is no train." Ironically, the director had the same problem when she traveled from Moscow to shoot the wistful war drama on location.
"During the war, they took apart the rails and never put them together again," the 25-year-old director said after a press screening of her film at Mosfilm on Wednesday. That made transporting camera equipment to Armenian mountain villages "very expensive," she said.
The film, which is taking part in the Perspectives section of the Moscow International Film Festival, is the debut feature for Saakyan, a graduate of Moscow's VGIK film school. Its story of a girl visiting her grandparents in Armenia, then finding herself unable to leave because of war, is one that is close to the director, who fled her native Yerevan at age 12.
"That little piece of earth is very dear to me," she said, recalling that when her family left Armenia in the 1990s, she begged them to let her stay. "I don't know whether I managed to convey that feeling, that emotion, at least a little bit."
While she talked, her young daughter pleaded with her for candy, and Saakyan spoke of her feeling that she would never return to live in Armenia. "Now, I realize that I can't go back because I already have my family here, I had my education here. ... I have opportunities to work here."
The film's screenwriter, 27-year-old VGIK student Givi Shavgulidze, drew on similar experiences, since he was forced to leave Abkhazia in the early 1990s. "He can't get back to his house at all because now there are other people living there," Saakyan said.
"The Lighthouse" remains vague about which Caucasus conflict it depicts, although its apparent subtext is the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Saakyan stressed that the story was not about a specific war. "In the 1990s, there was a war in Georgia, there was a war in Armenia. ... The whole of the former Soviet Union was covered in hot spots."
The film stars veteran actors as Armenian villagers, including Sofiko Chiaureli, who acted in Sergei Paradzhanov's "Color of Pomegranates," and Sos Sarkisyan, who played a doctor in "Solaris" by Andrei Tarkovsky. "They all agreed very quickly when they heard what the film was about," the director said. "They also care about this theme."
The film received a grant from the Netherlands-based Hubert Bals Fund, which supports up-and-coming filmmakers as part of the Rotterdam film festival. It is the first full-length film for Saakyan, who previously made an almost wordless short called "The Farewell" that won several festival awards. She described "The Lighthouse" as her "first attempt to work with words and a little bit with history."
"The Lighthouse" plays Mon. at 6 p.m. and Tues. at 6 p.m. at Oktyabr, located at 24 Novy Arbat. Metro Smolenskaya.