30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

Italian premiere

The region of Nagorno Karabakh,  in southern Caucasus: an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan that was the macabre theatre of an endless civil war.  The few black figures that wander about, tired, in a timeless and formless place, seem like ghosts, condemned to an eternity of suffering: the eternity of war that has gone on for twenty years without a break and the exasperating eternity of the few survivors,  often condemned to be the last of their families. Throughout the endless, repetitive days, these survivors roam about, without a destination or objective, amongst the ruins of the city, the cemeteries, and the corpses of their countrymen. In this context of death and destruction, even words are rare, condensed into poetry that is elevated to something eternal, solemn and strident at the same time, in an attempt to express the infinite suffering of a population torn apart. Almost afraid to express hope, they sorrowfully invoke the end  of their own, eternal suffering.

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  Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd

  A Belgian documentarist, his work is devoted to the investigation of war and human suffering. His films are often made in Africa - among others, Le cercle des noyés (2007) and Territoire perdu (2011) - and recently in France (Les tourmentes, 2014). His most recent film, Les éternels, is set in  Armenia and premièred at the festival Visions du Réel 2017.