Common People | 5 Dreamers and a Horse (2022)

THE FOURTH SCREENING

On November 24th 7PM to Kaunas artists’ house arrives an Armenian film „5 Dreamers and a Horse“ (2022).

Directors Aren Malakyan and Vahagn Khachatryan have created an elegant and mysterious feature debut about a complex and contradictory country where archaic traditions coexist with a generation of young adults who dream of revolution. Turning dreams into reality — this is what the two creators seem to wish for their protagonists.

More about the movie and the directors:

Through the empathic and aesthetically poetic gaze of the two directors, 5 Dreamers and a Horse showcases three faces of Armenia: the first represented by a person in charge of the elevator of a city hospital who, the symbol of an enthusiastic and intense urban Sovietism, dreams of becoming an astronaut; the second led by a peasant in his search for the perfect wife but confronted with a problem of sterility, a sadly perfect example of a rural society dominated by patriarchy; and a third personified by two queer characters who fight for the freedom to simply be what they are, symbols of an opening towards a dreamed and idealised West.

With 5 Dreamers and a Horse, Aren Malakyan and Vahagn Khachatryan have creates a film about dreams, about the desire to live an ideal future in which to become heroes. Through a direction simultaneously firm and respectful of its characters, the two Armenian directors allow us to observe their nation without the filters imposed by a government that would like to control everything and everyone. Their film depicts a multifaceted nation in which tradition clashes with the open-mindedness of young people, who deconstruct its limitations.

Documentary; Armenia, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Georgia, 2022. Armenian with English and Lithuanian subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, 80 min.

In 2011, Aren Malakyan was admitted to the Department of Film Art of Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinema. In 2013, he presented his film “Love Confession” in Japanese Style in Sofia Student Films Festival, Bulgaria, and won in the nomination of Best Film Editing. In 2013, Aren participated in the Polish documentary project “From Sunrise to Sunset” and within the scope of that project he directed the film Grandpa and Grandma.

Vahagn Khachatryan was born in Yerevan, in 1991. He moved to China at the age of 17, and from 2008-2014 studied Filmmaking at the Beijing Film Academy, and starting shooting documentaries. From 2014 to 2016 he was part of the DOC Nomads Program, and studied at the ULHT Lusófona University in Portugal, the SZFE University of Theatre and Film Arts in Hungary and the LUCA School of Arts / College Sint Lukas in Belgium. He shot “Phone Booth” (2014) in Portugal, “This is not a Pipe” (2015) in Hungary and “Lost Dream” in Belgium. These films were shown in several film festivals around the world.

PARTICIPATION AT THE EVENT IS FREE OF CHARGE

The Common People 2022 program examines the individual’s relationship with the environment and the landscape in which they live and work. We will look at the landscape as a factor generating social, political, and ecological meanings. The program’s films will reveal not only the beauty or issues of landscapes but also the contexts in which they exist, as well as their positive or negative influence on the individual and vice versa. Travelling from idyllic provincial landscapes to polluted metropolises, we will focus on historical layers of the environment, ecological and personal human tragedies, and social issues. We will try to understand how the relationship between man and space changes in the face of today’s challenges.

The project is curated by Karolis Žukas (Kitas Kinas) and Edvinas Grinkevičius (Kaunas Artists’ House).

Visual identity: Eglė Simonavičiūtė.

The project is financed by the Lithuanian Film Center and organized by Kaunas Artists’ House. Partners: platform Kitas Kinas and Kaunas Deaf Rehabilitation Centre.