October 10

Arthur Sakhkalyan, “Gilan After Hail”

This is a documentary film produced around repeated trips to remote Armenian village, Gilan, located in the Khosrov Forest region of Armenia. It focuses on the main characters in the village, their everyday lives, views, and values. Deep in a pristine natural area, the people are a product of their environment and have a deep interconnected relationship to it: sourcing everything they need to survive. As ‘The Bird’, the main character says: “Crisis, What Crisis?” about reports he has heard in the news, instead rebutting that the real crisis is that 60% of Armenia’s land is not cultivated. Gilan is a no-budget, grass-roots, documentary produced out of a love, curiosity and respect for a very human existence, with a level of consciousness, observation and clarity on the part of Sakhkalyan that captivates the viewer, brings you along for the journey, and evokes the feeling that you are sitting at the table sharing the food, feeling the hail on your face, and smelling the fresh lavashe being baked, in front of you, in the traditional way.