Crossroads/ Распутье

Dérives

Crossroads/ Распутье
Armenia, 2000/ 2021, 95’
in Armenian w/ English subtitles

Director and Scriptwriter: Karen Gevorgyan
Camera Crew: Samvel Amirkhanyan, Gagik Harutyunyan, Suren Grigoryan, Georgi Ghazaryan, Levon Atoyants
Sound Designer: Zaven Gevorgyan
Editor: Karine Arakelyan
Composer: Martiros Martirosyan
Coordinator: Ruben Gevorgyan
Narrator: Vachagan Pahlevanyan
This film was made with the means of businessmen Hovhannes Melik-Pashayev and Alexander Poryadochni and the financial support of the government of the Republic of Artsakh.

Although Karen Gevorgyan’s Crossroads was finished in 2000, it has been screened only twice in Armenia. The film contains exclusive footage shot by Gevorgyan in the frontlines of the First War in Nagorno-Karabakh and also post-war life in Armenia and Artsakh in the latter half of the 1990s, which accompany the narrator as he ponders about the Armenian national identity and what direction Armenia must choose so that the victory of the Armenian people in 1990s does not inevitably turn into dust. Taking into account the 2020 War in Nagorno Karabakh and its consequences, this film, made exactly 21 years ago, is not least (if not more) topical now, than it was then.

Karen Gevorgyan

Karen Gevorgyan (born in 1941) is a renowned Armenian-Russian film director and cinematographer. During his illustrious career, Gevorgyan has made numerous feature and documentary films since the 1960s in both the Soviet Union and independent Armenia and Russia, including the famous 1991 film The Spotted Dog Running at the Edge of the Sea, which won the Golden Saint Georgy Award at the XVII Moscow Film Festival, the FIPRESCI prize, and the Ecumenical Jury Award, while also being awarded the Grand Prix of the “Cinema for Chosen Ones” competition at the Kinotavr Film Festival. In the 1990s, Gevorgyan contributed to Armenia’s military-industrial complex along with the professionals of his engineering company by designing and producing the working prototypes of an Armenian military SUV and a UAV. Currently, he lives, creates, and teaches in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Filmography

The Master and the Servant (1962, cinematographer, fiction), Architecture (1963), Speech (1969), The Academician Knunyants (1973), Here, On This Crossing (1974, fiction), August (1978, fiction), A Farewell Beyond the Border (1981, fiction), Enter This World (1982), Ivan Pavlov: In Search of Truth (1983, fiction), Only I Know (1986, fiction), The Spotted Dog Running at the Edge of the Sea (1990, fiction), Welcome to Hell (1996), A Call to the Living (1998), Our Cross (1998), Crossroads (2000/ 2021), The Armenian Home (2000), War Without Commentary (2004), Our Only Hope (2017, fiction), Vasily Tyorkin (2020, fiction).