International Competition

Starting in 1988, a fierce battle raged between the two neighbouring states of Armenia and Azerbaijan (until 1991 part of the Soviet Union) over Nagorno Karabakh. In 1994, an armistice gave control of Karabakh and the Azeri territory in-between to Armenia. Director Vadan Hovhannisyan shows the footage he shot as an independent war reporter on the front 12 years ago. He runs across the battlefield with a shaky camera, under a fierce shower of bullets. Then, Hovhannisyan revisits the soldiers now, bringing prints of stills and frontline footage on his laptop. Although they have put on some weight, many of them are ‘victims of the peace’, as Hovhannisyan calls it in his voice-over. One of them is in jail for possession of cannabis, another is in an institution. Hovhannisyan does not emphasize the political side of the conflict, but the psychological effects the war had on the young soldiers. He juxtaposes chaotic and terse frontline images of 12 years ago with panoramic shots in fixed frames of the beautiful scenery today.