Verjin Kayan

Nora Armani’s award-winning play Sojourn at Ararat is the core of Harutyun Khachatryan’s The Last Station, the director’s unique attempt at a docu-dramatic feature film. The play is built on translations of Armenian poems into English and French. Armani describes the play as “one of her favorites because it has generated such impact on audiences in acquainting them with Armenian literature and through it, the genocide, in an artistically successful and uplifting way”. Shot in Paris, London, Avignon, Los Angeles and Yerevan, The Last Station is the story of a couple of actors who struggle as artists while bringing to the world the wealth of Armenian poetry. The film follows the couple in their tour around the world while their relationship slowly and painfully starts to fall apart. A brave attempt at filming the quest for artistic independence while maintaining the point of view of the exiles, the film’s journey ends in a newly independent Armenia in 1991. A film that deeply scarred both the director and his actors, The Last Station stands out as an attempt to figure out how to exist beyond the boundaries of exile.
(Giona A. Nazzaro)