Armenian filmmaker goes on hunger strike at Parliament

Ovannes Galstyan, an Armenian Film Director, has demanded to resume funding the film "My Granma's Curls". He stopped his first hunger strike last December after meeting the Minister of Culture, but resumed it due to non-fulfilment of agreements.

Mr Galstyan demands to resume the state financing of the film, return the funds withdrawn in 2017 from this film project by the decree of the Minister of Culture of Armenia, and start discussing the model of transparent and efficient state management of cinematography. He has stated these three conditions for the termination of his hunger strike on his Facebook.

On December 3, 2018, Ovannes Galstyan first went on a hunger strike in protest against the refusal to finance the film. On December 12, 2018, he met the Minister of Culture, Lilit Makunts, and stopped the hunger strike, as Ms Minister promised to resume funding. However, the minister, in the opinion of Galstyan, failed to fulfil her promises.

Naira Zograbyan, the head of the Human Rights Commission, has called on the filmmaker to stop the hunger strike; and on the Ministry of Culture to fulfil its duties and start negotiations with the film director.