1937

What are the parallels between the history of a country and that of an individual? Two chapters, two time spans, one history. The first part is set in 1937, at the height of the Stalinist purges in Yerevan, the Soviet state of Armenia. 1937 was also the year when the life of Nora Dabagian, the filmmaker's grandmother, took a 180-degree turn. Her history is beautifully reconstructed in the enthralling colours of Super 8 film. Intimate scenes carry us along into the secure world of mother and daughter. Their illusion of safety is cruelly shattered when the father is arrested for political reasons. In 2006, the circumstances of this arrest are described again, this time in an extensive interview with an elderly woman, affectionately called Babulia. She was still a young girl in the 1930s. Her sad and brave account is interspersed with optimistic looking excerpts from propaganda films of the time. The split form of the film reflects her life full of contrasts.