Border

Harutyun Khachatyan

Armenia

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Synopsis

A semi-brutal she-buffalo is found near the border and brought to a small post-war Armenian village. Through her eyes we see the joys and disasters of everyday life.

REVIEW

In this highly original docudrama, Harutyun Khachatryan offers a sensitive portrait of the beauty and tragedy of his native Armenia. Khachatryan's story is based on a real-life experience observed by the director.

Set in the 1990s, right after the fall of the Soviet Empire, the film takes place along the border between Armenia from Azerbaijan.  In this place, which war has turned into a no-man's land, a buffalo is found stuck in a ditch by refugees who are equally stranded. Brought back to a farm filled with animals and people, the buffalo is regarded with suspicion.

Khachatryan's storyteller is the buffalo.  Through the animal's soulful eyes - and Vrezh Petrosyan's poetic camera - we witness the fate of the people, their way of life, and the magic of nature. We see the monotony and beauty of the passing seasons: the green fields of Hartynyan's beloved Armenia in spring; houses being built; white earth and grey skies of winter, meals being cooked, bleak skies and barbed wire, and the search for warm clothing when autumn comes.

There are, per se, no protagonists or antagonists. There is no dialogue. There are only silent faces taken at face value: faces lined or worn with grief, young and eager faces, faces that argue and faces that frown. There is curious activity. A tent becomes a makeshift canteen. Meals are served. Fights erupt. A man dances with a burning torch. Haystacks catch fire. Frenzied animals run out of pens.

By telling his story through the eyes of the buffalo, the director connects us with the natural world. Watching the spoils of war from the buffalo's point of view, we are also privy to the frailties of human nature, and the unnatural consequences of tribal warfare on land and people.  It is a brilliant narrative conceit, executed in a highly original union of pictures and sound, a pure film of sheer, poetic imagery.

-Jeff Gorney