Kyanq

The films of Artavazd Pelechian are somewhat inadequately described as documentaries. Born in Armenia in 1938, in what was then the Soviet Union, Pelechian frequently draws his subjects from history, whether archival footage of the October Revolution and its aftermath in SKIZBE (1967), or the return of Armenian exiles after the horrors of genocide in MENQ (1969). But the term documentary does not even begin to suggest the films’ propulsive energy, fluidity, or sense of lyrical surprise. “Essay film” is sometimes used instead, though Pelechian’s works are typically wordless. The director has himself offered the term “distance montage,” which, unlike the linearity of his Soviet compatriot Sergei Eisenstein, organises shots like a “magnetic field.” Scale varies dramatically, from the hubris and awe of space exploration in NASH VEK (1983), to the bead of sweat forming on the brow of an expectant mother in KYANQ (1993). His method is like that of a composer, guided by gesture and sensation. Shots and sequences are like musical refrains and accrue new meanings as they repeat. ZEMLYA LYUDEY (1966), for instance, is bookended with a shot of Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker, whose musings, no doubt, deepen after a spiral-like collage of urban activity. Trains commonly appear, from the workers maintaining a perilous railroad in LERNAYIN PAREK (1964), to the passengers who gaze out of a compartment window in VERJ (1992), the wind gently lifting their hair. TARVA YEGHANAKNERY (1975) features shepherds inundated by water, snow and giant herds of sheep, which they still manage to transport in inventive ways; people in Pelechian films are rarely at rest, instead buffeted by the forces of nature and industry. Rarely seen, Pelechian’s entire body of work amounts to less than four hours, and still it was praised by French film critic Serge Daney for being “a missing link in the true history of the cinema.” In moments both grand and granular, Pelechian masterfully conjures a feeling of life in unceasing flux. (Genevieve Yue)

This film will be shown as part of the screening PELECHIAN PROJECT PROGRAMM 2.