Maestro

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http://www.tert.am/en/news/2009/11/02/chaldranyan/

 

 

Chaldranyan’s New Film ‘Maestro’ Brings March 1 Events to the Big Screen

 

 

Vigen Chaldranyan’s Maestro premiered at Yerevan’s Moscow Cinema on October 31. The theatre was more than crowded: the amount of people in attendance were twice as many as there were seats. The reason? Because the premier was not limited to the screening of the film: Armenia’s State Philharmonic Orchestra and Hover Chamber Choir, besides having direct connection with the film, gave a concert before the screening.

 

Chaldranyan’s Maestro is about composer and violoncellist Armen Tigranyan, celebrating his 60th birthday, whose story runs parallel to the events of March 1, 2008. He sometimes comes into direct contact with the people gathered before the Opera House and later with the “crowd” gathered at Shahumyan Square, expressing what the film has to say with his position on and characterizations of the events. The maestro, played by actor Mikael Poghosyan, also personifies the “crowd” and at the end of the film he “gets furious” because of a dog’s bite.

 

The maestro is the cellist of the state philharmonic orchestra. The orchestra with its full composition and headed by Art Director Eduard Topchyan participated in the film shooting. It is not by chance that in November 2008, Chaldranyan and Poghosyan, together with the orchestra, participated in tours in Japan, which was summed up in Chaldranyan’s documentary film.

 

At the end of the film, they find someone to substitute the cellist in the orchestra, who continues the maestro’s Requiem rehearsals. Vache Sharafyan’s work is also for a choir, which is performed by Hover. This Requiem is finally performed as an elegy to the city, ruined after March 1 events.

 

For the first time after March 1 events, this painful page of independent Armenia’s history appeared on the screen with documentary shots that didn’t even make it on YouTube during last year’s days where a state of emergency was declared in Yerevan. Many would agree that there’s no better way to bring “propaganda” to the people better than through mass art like cinema; something Soviet leaders did effectively during the years of social realism. How it will translate in this case, only time will tell.

 

Tert.am