War films presented in Nagorno-Karabakh

Within the Project "Cinema Dialogues", the city of Stepanakert hosted a presentation of films dedicated to the conflict in the region and created by young journalists - authors of documentaries from Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

"The initiators of the project 'Cinema Dialogues' are far from trying to settle the Karabakh problem completely - more likely, it should be viewed as an appeal to peaceful settlement of the conflict," said Gegam Bagdasaryan, head of the Stepanakert Press Club, at the presentation.

In his opinion, "films are reflecting hope and fear, grief and humour of the generation, whose life was deeply affected by the war." He added that the next phase of the project assumes bringing the films for discussion by the public of both parties.

Lawrence Broers, manager of the British NGO named "Reconciliation Resources", gave a brief presentation of the work under the project and emphasized the need and positive influence of contacts between Karabakh and Azerbaijan "at least in such form with the aim to search things in common."

According Arut Mansuryan, who represented the organization named "Internews Armenia", through the films, which present the present and the future of the two parties, people can see what happens on the opposite side of the border.

At the presentation, the audience could see two films from the television documentary cycle.

The first film - "My Enemy - My Friend" - shows former prisoners of war and hostages who recollect their sufferings and Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, due to which they came back home.

The second film "All Films About Love" tells about the fate of the family, where spouses are an Armenian and an Azerbaijani. The war saddened their life: their son perished, and their daughter was killed. The authors present the story of the elderly married couple with a piece of sad humour, trying to soothe their pain by songs from the Indian movies popular in their youth.

Irina Grigoryan, head of the Stepanakert Resource Centre, named the project helpful and successful. "It's important that it involved people from the Karabakh and Azerbaijani parties. It's same important that not professionals but people who want to share their opinions on the conflict are the participants," Grigoryan has emphasized.

Journalist Bella Lalayan said, in her turn, that she was against such films and such projects. "The war goes on, and both parties are not yet ready to hold a mutually interested dialogue without emotions; while the film bears a threat of belittling the feat of fallen heroes," she said.

Albert Voskanyan, the hero of the film "My Enemy - My Friend", objected, having emphasized that today the war is at the negotiation table, and such films can only contribute to the process of settlement.

Jenny Norton, coordinator of the British NGO "Reconciliation Resources", noted that it was much more difficult to organize the film show in Azerbaijan. "We use our best efforts to let more people in Azerbaijan know and see our films," Ms Norton said and added that in a week they would visit Baku and do the utmost to make a broad film show there.

The presentation of the films made under the project "Cinema Dialogues" is to take place in Baku on March 17.