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DESCRIPTION OF THE FILM:

In order to pass on an ancestral heritage, Aram and Virginia, an Armenian couple from the diaspora take a troupe of young European actors of the Wroclaw Grotowski Institute on an initiatory journey to the places in Anatolia, where the Armenian art once flourished, and where the Armenian civilization has been destroyed. They transmit an ancestral tradition of chant which is in danger of disappearing. Along the way, the questioning of the actors brings to the forefront the wealth of this culture: the chant becomes a language of creation and sharing, the breath of life. An initiatory journey where the sounds, the music, the bodies and the cries impart a memory and a future.

"Singing in Exile" reveals many stories and theories of Armenian genocide. Protagonists come across people who know the events which happened many years ago. We also notice the echoes of those times, watching the scenes of laying down bouquets in the place where Hrant Dink, who wrote about the Armenian genocide in the pages of "Agos," was assassinated. In spite of being historiosophically charged, "Singing in Exile" is not a film which tries to make the reckoning, and it does not force a specific way of talking about history, nor does it point its finger at the guilty ones. Art, great passion and sacrifice of Aram and Virginia come to the foreground. What is the role of their singing? What can you express through art, what emotions can you share? These are the fundamental questions which arise during the screening of the film. In this context, "Singing in Exile" is an extremely universal documentary film, a praise of art in which - according to the Turkish Armenian mentioned at the beginning - we can find our humanity.

This element of humanity, memory of the entire nation and traces of the past are what the authors of the film are also trying to find. "Singing in Exile" is full of lyrical, poetical landscapes, scenes, which in combination with liturgical singing of the protagonists - create a nostalgic, poignant image. Cinema comes to the aid of Aram and Virginia's art, it has a life-giving force. As long as we create, we can narrate history thorough emotions. Only this kind of art will enable our memory to survive - "Singing in Exile" seems to say.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Turi Finocchiaro and Nathalie Rossetti are independent filmmakers. Turi Finocchiaro directs a small production company, Borak Films, and Nathalie Rossetti has participated in the Jungle Film of Basile Sallustion since 2005. Turi is from the documentary film world while Nathalie is more from the world of fiction. As documentary filmmakers, their interest is in artistic, historic and anthropological subjects. They have made many films, including Yiddish Soul and Luce's Besa: "Against Blood Justice".

Nathalie Rossetti - a director. After graduating from the DAMS faculty of the University of Bologna and Orazio Costa’s theatre school in Florence, since 1991, she worked in the audiovisual sector as a scriptwriter, documentary filmmaker, music consultant in the film industry as well as directors’ and producers’ assistant in Italy and Belgium. Apart from writing scripts for short films, she worked as a co-author of four feature films, including "Le Nain Rouge" directed by Yvan Le Moine, awarded with Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998. Author of the documentary "Oltre il ring" ("Beyond the ring", 2005), awarded with the Honorable Mention at the FICTS festival in Milan. Since 2000, together with her husband Turi Finocchiaro, they have been producing their own documentaries, related to art and anthropology.

Turi Finocchiaro - a producer and co-director. After studying film in France and Belgium, he got into audiovisual production with an initial foray into feature films (Italy), followed by documentaries (Belgium). Since 1993 he worked for a number of production companies in the field of project development and financing applications for European programmes (Media+, Eurimages). This led him to found E.F.C. in Rome in 1996, a company devoted exclusively to project development. In 1998, also in Rome, he went on to create Impronte Digitali, an independent production company specializing in short films and creative documentaries. Finocchiaro returned to Belgium in 2004, where he directed several films with Nathalie Rossetti and together, along with Amel Bouzid, they founded Borak Films in 2009. Together they have created, among others, the documentary "Yiddish Soul" (2006) and the musical "Yiddish Soul Concert" (2006), shown in many festivals around the world. Their film "Against Blood Justice" (2008) was awarded at the Astra Film Festival (Romania, 2009), “One World” Human Rights International Documentary Film Festival (Kosovo, 2009) and International Human Rights Film Festival FIFDH (France, 2010). In 2007 in Italy they created an international documentary film festival, Faito Doc Festival, which is organized every summer.

Virginia Pattie Kerovpyan was born in Washington, D.C. and moved to Paris in the 1970's. She has performed and recorded with various early music ensembles, as well as contemporary music. Soloist of the Kotchnak and Akn ensembles, she has specialized in Armenian song since 1980. Her interpretation brings to the forefront the essence of this music making its discovery and transmission more accessible.

Aram Kerovpyan was born in Istanbul, Turkey. He learned to play the kanoun and studied the Near Eastern music system with Master musician Saadeddin Öktenay. Moving to Paris, he joined the Kotchnak ensemble, performing Armenian folk and troubadour music and in 1985, established the Akn ensemble specializing in Armenian liturgical chant. He is the master-singer of the Armenian cathedral in Paris since 1990. He is active in the world of theater as musician, teacher and composer. He holds a PhD in musicology and publishes about modal theory and history of Armenian liturgical music.

REVIEWS:

http://www.polishshorts.pl/en/interviews/2391/

LINKS:

Singing in exile

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