RETURN OF THE POET

The latest film from Armenia's greatest filmmaker, Harutyun Khachatryan, is a sublime portrait of the state of his country. Employing the figure of the 19th century national poet, Ashugh Jivani, to frame the documentary, Return of the Poet falls into two distinct halves. The first is a fascinating study of an artist's creative process: We observe the methodical construction of a 10-foot-high statue of Jivani by a veteran sculptor, who first moulds a prototype from clay before carving the final work from a huge chunk of stone. The film then takes us on a tour of the picturesque countryside with Jivani's likeness and century-old poetry guiding us on our journey, observing the living, breathing combination of the traditional and the new that make up contemporary Armenia. As scenes of folk dances and peasants on carts are juxtaposed with images of encroaching modernity, Return of the Poet treats us to a very personal - and poetic - view of an arrestingly beautiful country.

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D/P/S Harutyun Khachatryan S Mikayel Stamboltsyan WS HayFilm Studio L Armenian (no dialogue) TD 35mm/2006/82mins Harutyun Khachatryan was born in Akhalkalaki, Georgia, in 1955. His films include Return to the Promised Land (1991, doco) and Documentarist (2003, doco).