Perspectives: Film documentary shows two sides of war from two villages

He says these words in the “In That Distant Neighboring Village” documentary that tells about the neighboring Armenian Aygepar and Azerbaijani Alibeyli villages.

The distance between the two villages is only 200 meters; the villagers lived and worked side by side for years, but the war changed their fates and the neighbors became adversaries.

“We couldn’t imagine we could become enemies and take weapons. We were going to each other’s weddings, their workers were building our houses, and ours were building theirs,” says one the Armenian characters of the film.

The documentary is actually two films with the same title, shot at the beginning of this year. The film about the Armenian village was produced by Shoghakat TV, based on Tigran Paskevichyan’s script and directed by Ara Shirinyan (producer – Satenik Faramazyan).

The life in the Azerbaijani village of Alibeyli was performed by the Internews Azerbaijan organization based on Eljan Mamedov’s script and directed by Ayaz Salayev (producer - Ilham Safarov).

The production of the film was co-financed by the Catholic Relief Services/ Europe/Middle East (Caucasus sub-region) (www.crs.org) and the Dutch Inter-Church Organization for Cooperation Development, in partnership with Armenian Round Table Foundation.

“The project is more comprehensive; besides shooting films we aim also at undertaking a small survey to understand the attitude of the society toward the conflict and the solutions the people see for it,” says Naira Altounyan, the Program Coordinator.

The first public viewing of the film was organized on June 11th and 12th, within the program of the Directors without Borders at the Golden Apricot International Film Festival.

“Cinema is the language of the people. Cinema is the field where the people’s opinion is reflected,” says festival guest, Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. “Cinema is the forum for the people,”

The villagers of Alibeyli and Aygepar use this forum to tell about their life before and after the war.

“I have been serving at the observation post since 1990; I have been a platoon commander. The director of the Azerbaijani positions canteen was calling me, saying: ‘Hey, Lyova! Why are we fighting, for whom? We don’t know ourselves’,” tells Lyova from Aygepar.

And Arakel tells he has once saved his Azerbaijani friend’s life when they both worked in a mine.

“After the accident he would say I am his brother. When the war began, he had informed me through a guy that we would stay brothers despite anything,” says Arakel from Aygepar.

An elderly man in the Azerbaijani film tells his childhood friend, a native Armenian, had secretly warned him about the possible war.

“He told to take the women and children from the village, to strengthen positions, as people had come from Yerevan and were forcing them to fight,” tells the Azerbaijani villager from Alibeyli (Azerbaijani names are not mentioned in the film).

The positive memories are then gradually replaced with the negative ones in the Azerbaijani film; people recall the war, recall all of a sudden Armenians have always envied them.

On a reply to the question “who is an Armenian?” the interviewed children say the word “dushman” (“enemy” in Azerbaijani) for several times. “I had the impression the Azerbaijani film was more guided: there were talking about their Armenian neighbors, they were telling about the fests together, how they worked together, then all of a sudden the moods change and even the 5-10 year old children say Armenians are their enemies, or like the old woman in the film said: ‘they were once mowing the grass in our fields, then they came to suck our blood’,” says writer Marine Petrosyan.

The Armenian film is more pacifistic, though in one episode Paytsar Abrahamyan says she can’t forgive Azerbaijanis the bloodshed of so many young people and that many centuries should pass for the wound to heal.

Both films drew interesting parallels: for instance, the villagers at none of the sides knew who launched the war, but both sides were confident the neighboring villagers were innocent; both sides were telling cases of helping each other at the beginning of the war.

“We met the director of the Azerbaijani film in Georgia four times. We first discussed the main principles on that there would be no narrator’s words, there would be no mediation, nothing would be embellished, and people would be given an opportunity to express themselves freely,” says director Paskevichyan.

Paskevichyan says Salayev told him after the first viewing he disagreed with many opinions in the film, but the diversity of the people’s opinion should be shown.

“I have recently met the Azerbaijani film producer Ilham Safarov. He told me they have shot the film in six days, the main material was 5.5 hours long, but the edited one lasts 25 minutes. I asked how freely the people were talking in the film. He said they were absolutely free and the people were given opportunity to express their opinion. Both films reflect the psychological condition of the two societies,” says CRS Caucasus Sub-regional Representative Richard Hoffman.

Sona Hamalian, CRS Armenia Head of Office, noted that the two production teams hope to be able to show the pair of films together to selected audiences in Armenia as well as in Azerbaijan.

“Our aim was to create room for the two societies to meet, because it is possible only in the virtual reality. Our Azerbaijani colleague Salayev said the last time we met: ‘We have only tried to decide the diagnosis.’ The film can’t influence the politics but it offers a chance for thinking,” says Paskevichyan.