Serj Avedikian about his films, Armenia and the Diaspora

25.05.2021

Cinematography always brings the French-Armenian film director to Armenia. Serj Avedikian says sincerely: One of his dreams is for his works to become universal and travel to reach the audience. It is here that the film director emphasizes that his works are not only for the Armenian or French audience, rather they are for everyone.

“I think I have never created anything just for the Armenian audience. That would be wrong on my part. First of all, I work more in France than in Armenia. It is important for me that what is inherited, and what comes from the internal world, reaches other audiences in a universal way,” said Serj Avedikian.

Those well acquainted with the art of the French-Armenian film director will notice that there is one common line in his films. Serj Avedikian seasoned each work with poetry.

“One of the second lines is stylization. I do not like very real cinema, there must be an approach to stylized time, because one of the secrets of cinema, animation is its relationship to rhythm, tempo and time,” he said.

To avoid falling behind the tempo and time, Serj Avedikian offers to get out of emotionality. He says this relates to all spheres. The Armenian people must understand that the problems and worries are not only theirs, they belong to everyone, all the nations have gone through and are going through difficulties.

“I think that right now that emotionality is coming back, that our people have always established their identity on the broken. It is not necessary not to know or not to do it, rather it is necessary to establish on it, and then go through it, it must be digested, otherwise, we will always remain in that sad-emotional process,” said the French-Armenian film director.

The past, the lessons learned can be re-evaluated, perceived and analyzed through art. Serj Avedikian notes that the young representatives of the Armenian film industry are making new experiments in the field.

“I notice that young people tend to preserve poetry in cinema, there is a tendency to have a connection with symbolism, which cannot be expressed simply in a direct way, you have to find gestures to express what you cannot say simply in a direct way,” said Avedikian.

At the same time, there is a lack of life in Armenian cinema. According to the French-Armenian film director, little is said about emotional, simple issues in Armenia through cinema.

“It seems that there are taboos, there are plots that I do not see in the cinema, man and woman, family, street, social position, distrust, internal tragedy, I see little of it, you think that something should be expressed, you should always like this, so stretched, very strong, and to introduce a little simplicity does not mean to be simple, it is difficult to be simple in art.

Serj Avedikian brings the example of Armenia and the Diaspora. He says that the Diaspora has its own culture, which is different from the culture of Armenians living in Armenia.

They have experienced other migrations, other pains that are similar but different. Then they became citizens of France, Italy, US, etc. It means that they are integrated into another language, but have their own identity.

Both the questions and the problems are put on the table in different ways. According to Avedikian, the Diasporan-Armenian live on someone else’s land, but he has his inner Armenia, which is his own, but for some time it is emotionality. The French-Armenian film director emphasizes that art, in his case cinema, can connect Armenia and the Diaspora in this way