Nora Armani and Gerald Papasian Honored at 22nd Golden Apricot Film Festival in Armenia – The California Courier

BY MARIETA MAKARYAN

YEREVAN—The closing of the 22nd edition of the Golden Apricot Film Festival in Yerevan was attended by several international guests, included Marco Mueller, festival director and film curator par excellence, Jury President and renowned filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako, Palme d’Or winner Jafar Panahi, Regional Jury President and award-winning filmmaker Amir Naderi, as well as Rachel Tsangari, Tamara Stapanyan, Eric Nazarian, and Karren Karagulian, to name a few.

Nora Armani and Gerald Papasian were among the festival guests for the closing film “Last Station,” directed by Harutyun Khatchatryan and starring Armani, Papasian, and Armen Djigarkhanian. The film was screened in a restored, digital version in celebration of Festival President Haroutyun Khatchatrian’s 70th anniversary.

Filmed during Armenia’s difficult post-independence years, “Last Station” is a docu-drama depicting elements from Armani and Papasian’s international tours with their award-winning production “Sojourn at Ararat.” It is the only fiction film made by documentarist Haroutyun Khatchatryan. “Last Station” was completed in 1994, it premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and screened in various film festivals and retrospectives internationally at the time of its release.

Gerald Papasian Nora Armani and Armen Djigarkhanyan in “Last Station”

During the festival’s closing ceremonies, Nora Armani and Gerald Papasian were honored with special awards by the Union of Cinematographers of Armenia for their lead roles as actors in “Last Station.”

Further screenings of the film are planned in international retrospectives in France and elsewhere as well as in Armenia.

The 1994 film “Last Station” holds a special place in Harutyun Khachatryan’s creative path, and it was this film that closed the 22nd edition of the Golden Apricot Film Festival in honor of the director’s 70th anniversary.

The main characters featured in all of Khatchatryan’s films are wandering artists who have lost their homeland and are looking for a home. They are people whom the director has followed with a camera in his hand during his four-decade creative journey.

Nora Armani and Gerald Papasian in a scene from “Last Station”

The lead characters in “Last Station” are two Diaspora Armenian actors. The film is based on a play they staged, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 1986. Later, the play was performed in many countries. The film tells the story of this itinerant pair who have traveled the world performing a play about their people, as they strive to find their spiritual roots far from their historical homeland.

“Last Station” tells the fictionalized story of Egyptian-born Armenian actors Nora Armani and Gerald Papasian, who travel to Los Angeles in search of their American dream. In the film, the pair, having failed to achieve Hollywood fame, stage a small theatrical performance based on Armenian poetry and begin touring the world. In one of the cities, they are joined by another exiled artist, played by Armen Djigarkhanyan. Soon, the trio reaches the last station, Armenia, where their paths diverge.

Nora Armani and Gerald Papasian in “Last Station”

Using the epistolary style as the film’s main narrative medium, and blurring the boundaries between documentary and fiction, renowned director, co-writer Harutyun Khachatryan, along with co-writer-producer and co-director, actor Nora Armani, as well as co-writer, actor, translator Gerald Papasian, create archetypal characters who, unfortunately, cannot stay together. Enriching the story with Armenian poetry, multi-genre music, and equally poetic urban landscapes, the director has created a film about broken dreams, separation, and, continuing the journey; a film full of longing and warmth.

My decades-long closeness with the main actors of the film made me think at one point that it was about their joint personal life together and their creative path. However, as the film unfolded, all that evaporated, and I realized that the author-actors had simply created fictional characters and an artistic story about their lives and creative paths, which was received with great warmth, prolonged applause, and congratulations. The audience was simply amazed by the wonderful acting and recitation of Nora Armani and Gerald Papasian, and the style of presenting the works of our great writers and poets.

Back in the early 90s, the first international festival of Diaspora Armenian theaters and theater groups was organized in Armenia, and Nora Armani and Gerald Papasian participated with their play “Sojourn At Ararat,” which won the festival’s special award. I was working at the only Armenian television station in those years, and I was assigned to film and create television versions of the plays by theatre groups that won awards at the festival among those was the play “Sojourn At Ararat.”

From that time to this day, our professional relationship continues. I watched the film and was amazed at the way the story was based on the play with wonderful recitations, and a unique presentation. The co-authors were able to tell the story of a couple searching for their place and role in life. They interpreted their roles with the utmost artistic skill, enhanced by a soundtrack depicting their travels and the bustling city life. In short, a wonderful film that will still receive accolades at many festivals.

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