Amverj Pakhust, Haverzh Veradardz

In 1988-1989 filmmaker Harutyun Khachatryan started his painful exploration of alienation and rootlessness among Armenian exiles. Since then he has shot a huge archive depicting the developments of those days and concentrated on the personal life stories of several Armenian artists to be discovered in 5 documentaries. This is the first part. The documentary video footage starts with l988.
Twenty years past… Life totally changes in Armenia. Earthquake in 1988 was followed by the collapse of the USSR, war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, years of blockade…
After all these difficulties, it seems life has returned to more or less normal roots. The difficulties of past are forgotten. Forgotten are our heroes as well. 1988 was a time of sudden political developments in Armenia, which changed a lot – lives of people, way of thinking, lifestyle. The movement for the independence started. This made Harutyun Khachatryan start making the footage which will serve as a base for this project. Two musicians (both popular in those days) - Ruben and Plush, started traveling across what was formerly the Soviet Union, interviewing Armenians living in self or imposed exile. They raised existential questions about national identity and the meaning of home, literally and figuratively. These two young people traveled from the Far East to West of the country, meeting old friends, giving concerts…
The first documentary exposes Hayk, a theater director settled in Moscow and having wandered all his life seeking himself and freedom. "I vanished into the air," he says in an attempt to rationalize his weightless life, "I am never alone. I live with history." The film contains footage from 1980s and from our days. We simply follow Hayk’s life, his endeavors, attainments, struggle and search. We follow him talk about same issues 20 years ago and now, when Harutyun Khachatryan, already a well-known director, comes to the same question of identity. Would these people, who left their home country, be ever back? If they were running just from themselves, what did they find in the end?
What changed these 20 years in people’s lives? What makes them return or leave their country again and again? These questions encouraged Harutyun Khachatryan to start a huge research, which takes the observations done 20 years ago and follows the same people nowadays.