Yerevan shows film about same-sex relations as public awareness of LGBT issue is on the rise

Yerevan hosted a closed screening of the film "postDIY" referring to a story of a pub which sheltered people with non-traditional sexual orientation and was blown up in 2012.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that by the level of sexual minorities' rights, Armenia takes the 47th place in the annual ranking of the ILGA-Europe – the European branch of the International Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transgenders and Intersexuals. Russia is ranked 48th; Azerbaijan takes the last 49^th place. Thus, these three countries are recognized as most homophobic in Europe.

On November 9, in Yerevan, the experimental short film "postDIY" by Armenian director Lusine Talalyan was shown in the "Queer House", where only women were allowed to enter. The film was created in 2015, and the "Queer House" showed it for the first time. Prior to that, the film was shown several times in other places in Yerevan.

The film took part in the "Signes de Nuit" International Film Festival in France. In 2015, the film "postDIY" was also presented to the committee of the "Golden Apricot" Film Festival, but it was not accepted.

The film "postDIY" is the first Armenian film which directly raises the topic of lesbian relations, reported Raffi Movsisyan, a film critic of the "Golden Apricot" International Film Festival.

"Earlier, there were fragmental references in some film, but the film directed by Lusine Talalyan is the first work I know about the topic in modern Armenian cinematography," Raffi Movsisyan told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The film "postDIY" was followed by other films devoted to the same topic. In 2016, the documentary film "Listen to me" was shot from the stories of real people who faced discrimination of LGBT community members in the Armenian society.

In 2017, Iranian-Armenian movie "Apricot Groves" was released. It tells the story of the young Armenian woman who goes to Iran for a sex change operation to be able to marry her lover. Both films were included in the program of the country's largest film festival "Golden Apricot", but were removed from the program at the last minute.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.