Avetik - film by Don Askarian "Dali, Tarkovski, Bunuel, Deren ... Add the name of Armenian director Don Askarian to the ranks of this dream team. His latest film "Avetik" is very much in tradition of the cinema of dreams. A gorgeous and mesmerizing film, "Avetik" both thrills the eye and boggles the mind. It takes you on a journey of the mind that leads to heaven or hell - a succelent garden full of bare-breasted godesses or a frozen step of devastation and death". "Askarian is capable of producing images that are unlike anything ever seen before, yet hit you with a primal immediacy". Giovanni Fazio, "The Japan Times" 25 Mar, 1995 CREDITS AVETIK is in the list of best ten films of all times by Norbert Link... "Avetik" was treated as the best film of 1993 by a number of film critics like Peter W. Jansen. synopsis Script, Direction, Editing, Art Direction Don Askarian, photos Camera Gagik Avakian, Martin Gressmann, Andreas Sinanos 35 mm, 1:1.66, 84 min, color. Germany, 1992. Script, Direction, Editing, Art Direction by Don Askarian. Produced by Don Askarian and Margarita Woskanian in co-production with NDR, Germany and FIAF, Armenia with support by Filmburo NW, Germany. Distributed and broadcasted in Germany, Japan, Netherland, Armenia. Prizes: "Special Prize of Int. Filmfest." in Mannheim'92; "Hubert Bals Fund's Support" - Rotterdam'93; "Main Prize for best direction" Fugueira da Foz'93. © by Don Askarian.

Technical data:
35 mm, 1:1.66, 84 min, color. Germany, 1992.
Script, Direction, Editing, Art Direction by Don Askarian.
Produced by Don Askarian and Margarita Woskanian in co-production with NDR, Germany and FIAF, Armenia with support by Filmburo NW, Germany.
Distributed and broadcasted in Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Armenia.
Prizes: "Special Prize of Int. Film Fest." in Mannheim'92; "Hubert Bals Fund's Support" - Rotterdam'93; "Main Prize for best direction" Fugueira da Foz'93.
© by Don Askarian.

Prints in Armenian, German, Italian, Dutch, Japan.

Sale and distribution
by Don Film
e-mail: donfilm@netsys.am

AVETIK is in the list of best ten films of all times
by Norbert Link...

"Avetik" was treated as the best film of 1993 by a number of film critics like Peter W. Jansen.

"Dali, Tarkovski, Bunuel, Deren ... Add the name of Armenian director Don Askarian to the ranks of this dream team. His latest film "Avetik" is very much in tradition of the cinema of dreams. A gorgeous and mesmerizing film, "Avetik" both thrills the eye and boggles the mind. It takes you on a journey of the mind that leads to heaven or hell - a succulent garden full of bare-breasted goddesses or a frozen step of devastation and death". "Askarian is capable of producing images that are unlike anything ever seen before, yet hit you with a primal immediacy".

Giovanni Fazio, "The Japan Times" 25 March, 1995

The Harvard Film Archive about the film

Hovering between the realms of poetry and history, this stunningly photographed, elegiac work-hot mostly in long takes-mixes cryptic metaphor and fantastic symbolism to tell the story of Avetik, an Armenian filmmaker exiled in Berlin. Director Askarian employs dreamlike images-a crumbling, ancient stone chapel gradually reduced to nothing by the rumbling vibrations of passing military vehicles; a ghostly cemetery of carved tombstones in which a woman takes a starving sheep in her arm and breast-feeds it back to life-to reflect the history of his homeland and shades of his own exile in Germany. In sensuous, lyric tableaux, Askarian explores German racism, the 1915 Armenian genocide, the disastrous earthquake of 1989, tranquil childhood memories, and images inspired by erotic medieval poetry.


CAST & CREDITS
Avetik Alik Assatrian Avetik as Child Mikhael Stepanian Refugee Karen Ganibekian Poet-Kuchak Eduard Saribekian Armenian King Samvel Ovasapian Journalist Geno Lechner In further Rols Armen Hovanessian, Nare Haikasian, Wahram Martirossian, Oxana Podgaiskaia, Setrak, Igor Moltchan, Margarita Woskanian, Wigen Keshishian, Gevorg, Sergei, Wigen Camera Gagik Avakian, Martin Gressmann, Andreas Sinanos Music V. Bellini, F. Schubert, Armenian Folk Music Production Supervisor and Management as well as Filmmusic, Sound editing and Costumes Margarita Woskanian Make-up Marlik Bagdassarian, Bi Meyer Sound Rudolph Schwarz, Oliver Grafe Lighting Rafik Kirakossian, David Gevorkian, Vigen Begoian, Luc mc Bain, Chris Kraus	Wardrobe Marien Harutunian Sound Effects Heinz Heppner, Dirk Heppner Assistant Directors Barbara Schubert, Nara Camera-Assistants Alexander Davtian, Rubik, Alexander Rytov, Peter Döttling, Dimitris Damalas Art Direction Assistants and Properties Alik Assatrian, Rubik Abrahamian, Robert Askarian, Armen aus Erewan, Babken Alaverdian, Nina and Gagik Drivers Hakop Ghughuian, Babken Alaverdian, Mikhael Adamian, Vardkes Harutunian, Gedeon Movsessian, Wrej Badalian, Schiko Location Management Aschot Abrahamian, Aschot Tigranian Couriers Aschot Nasarian, Ara Stepanian Filmcode Moviecode Titles Thomas Wilk Mixing Ralf Krause Commissioning Editor Eberhard Scharfenberg, NDR Script writer, director, editor, art director Don Askarian

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Films - Avetik	Synopsis & Director's Intensions About the Film Credits