How Locarno Opener ‘in the Land of Arto’ Tackles Armenia’s “Collective Trauma”

The 78th Edition of the Locarno Film Festival Opens with A Movie that Gives Audiens Plenty to Think About, Courtesy of Tamara Stepanyan’s Fiction Feature Directoria In the Land of ArtoStarring Camille Cottin (Call My Agent!, House of Gucci) and zar amir ebrahimi (Holy Spider, Tatami).

Cottin Plays A French Woman Named Céline, Who Arrives in Armenia from FROM FROMANCE TO LEGALIZE The DEATH OF HER HUSBAND ARTO, WHO DIED BY SUICIDE, ONLY TO DISCOVER THAT HED. “SO begins a journey through arto’s past, as sheets people left disabled by the Battles of 2020, Veterans from the 1990s, hauntings of a never-coing Warba”. Synopsis.

Amir Ebrahimi Plays An Armenian Woman Who Helps the Protagonist Understand More About the History and the Scars of the Country. Other Cast Members Include Shant Hovhannisyan, Hovnatan Avédikian, Alexander Khachochatryan, Babken Chobanyan and Denis Lavant. Be for Films Is Handling Sales Duties on the French-Emerican Co-Production.

Cottin Tells Thr that she enjoys acting in a bot dramas and comedies, but acknowledges that Arto Took A Lot of Effort, not Only Because of the Diffeit Journey of Her Character. “IT DEFINITELY WAS A CHALLENGE GIVEN OF THE TRAJECTORY OF THIS Woman and the Ghost of Her Husband, and How You Can Can Reconcile, Understand, Forgive People Who,” SHE. “What’s Beautify is that Tamara Also Made This Love Story to Say That Conversation Continues Even After Death.”

Much More Than Simplaly a Story About A Married Couple and Their Secrets, In the Land of Arto Paints A Picture of A Whole Country. “IT’s About A Collective Trauma,“ Stepanyan Tells Thr. “IT is about a collective history that includes several Wars, Warriors and Wounded Women, Wounded Men and a wounded Country. Armenia Went Thorugh A Lot – Genocide, War And Thoen Thoen. [in 1988]. So, it is more than one Woman’s Story. And i just felt that i Needed to Talk About Mourning, Because I Think It’s Something that Is Important To Talk About. IT TAKES TIME. ”

Asked about the choice of arto’s death by Suicide, The Filmmaker Explans: “I Wanted a Sudden Death, But at the Same Time, I Felt The Guy Shold Die. Important, if you’re nationalist or not, Other than the fact that you lost Land, It Is Really About the Realization That So Many People, and So Much YouT, Died for Nothing. ”

In her portrayal of céline, Cottin Says she have to convey of the Character’s Determination and Her Confusion. “The Amount of Questions and Guilt and Search for Understanding Is Just Crazy, But The Fact That She Have CHILDRON MEANS THAT She Needs to Kieep On Moving “And the Children Need HOPE, so you need to be strong. So Little by Little, The Feelings, The Emotions, Are Left Aside to Focus on the Answers, The Quest, Action. That.

The Actress have a friend whose Father is armenian, but she didn’t know much about the Country’s History. “WHEN I MET TAMARA, she REALLY OPENED The DOOR to the Story of this Country and the Political Context for ME, and We Just Ended Up Having the Dream of Making this Film Together, She Recall. “She’s Very Magnetic, and this is Really Like A Declaration of Love to Her Country.”

Coming to the Film Without Much Knowledge About Armenia Actualally Helped Her with Her Character, She Adds. “Céline is ignorant of a lot of the history, which matched wht and was was regarding armenia,“ Cottin Tells Thr. “BUT I WAS JUST REALLY Excited To Dive Into The History of A Country, Travel Through Its Landscapes, and Work with A WHOLE TEAM WHERE, I WOULD SAY, 70 PERCENT OF THE CREECT OF THE CREE. Being Totally Involved and Immersed and Trying to Understand the Culture. ”

In Fact, Much of the Shoot Took Place in Armenia. “All the Scenes in the Country, I did the Actual shoot in armenia,” Stepanyan Emphasizes. The Crew Even Shot in A Village Near the BORDER with Azerbaijan.

Much of the Crew Was Armenian, But As Cinematographer, The Director Was Excited To Have Attracked Claire Mathon (Portrait of A Lady On Fire, Saint Omer), “The French Mega Superstar Cinematographer, and A Woman Who’s Done Around 30 Feature Films,” Stepanyan Tells Thr with a smile. “WHEN I WANTED TO WORK WITH HER, EVYBODY SAID, ‘DON’T EVEN TRY! She REFUSES A FILM Every Week, and by Very Big Directors.’ But I have this deep desire to make my film throug of her eyes, Through Her Images.

Stepanyan’s Experience As A Documentary Filmmaker Shines Through in Various Ways Throughout Arto. “YES, There’s A Kind of Documentary Feel To The Movie,“ She Says. “Claire is Also Very, Very Sensitive to Documentary. She’s Done A Lot of Documentaries, and We Both Wanted to Bring the Real Into Fiction, Bring Documentary Into FICTI.

Stepanyan Found Joy in the “Real Collaboration” of the Entire Creative Team Begind and in Front of the Camera. “For Me, Cinema is a Collective Work, and I Love that,“ She Says. “Camille Had this Beautify Tradition to come and say: ‘Okay, My Darling, Let’s Read this Again, and Let’s Discusses This Again.’ And SomeTimes She Made Proposals That I Accepted. Possible. ”

Adding to the Authenticity of the Atmosphere in Arto is a rank of armenian actors, including Hovhannisyan, Whom Stepanyan Calls “One of the Greatest Accusters in Armenia Today.” MOST ACTORS are from local theaters, Though. “I SPENT Two MONTS IN ARMENIA, DEEPLY CASTING, AND I BASICALLY PICKED A LOT OF POPLE FROM The Places We Shot at,“ The Director Explans. “I Wanted Them to Feel Authentic and Seem Like They Really Part of the Scenery.”

For One Smaller Role in a Memorable Scene, The Director Cast A Local Man Who Is A Mechanic Rather Thank. “I was Scouting with Claire, and We Were Going Up Tese Stairs of This Broken Building, and this Guy Asks: ‘Are You Looking for Something?’ And I SAID I’M MAKING A FILM, AND I WANT TO MAYBE DAKE A SHOT FROM HERE. Thr. “HE LIVED THERE WHEN EARTHQUAKE HAPPENED. HE TOLD ME The WHO Story of His Family. And I Was there Film.