Forgotten Season: Screening – A Story of People in War and Peace

A Story of People in War and Peace is an eloquent and emotional film about coping with war and its consequences, seen from the perspective of its participants. The backdrop is the Nagorno Karabakh conflict – a vicious turfwar between Armenia and Azerbaijan that attracted some attention in the West before it was swiftly forgotten amidst the collapse of communism in Russia.

Filmmaker Vardan Hovhannisyan was involved in the conflict as a war correspondent. The footage he shot looks as if it is from another age – the trenches, mud and barbed wire could have come straight from World War One. One poignant scene sees a soldier, whilst under fire, record a last message to his son in the event he doesn’t survive the war. He did, many others did not.

Ten years after the conflict he tracked down all the people he filmed to see how they had been affected, realising that war and peace affect people in very different ways. A Story of People in War and Peace is the very essence of preserving memories from a part of history that is almost unknown in the wider world.

Directed by: Vardan Hovhannisyan
Executive Producer: Peter Symes
Length: 69 mins
Country: Armenia