THE BLACK GARDEN
in the presence of director
Alexis Pazoumian
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December 2019. Life is returning to normal in the Armenian community of Talish in Artsakh. Families have moved into the new houses that stand alongside the ruins of the last Azeri attack in 2016. A playground for two friends, Samvel and Avo, when they’re not at school. Karen, the lumberjack and veteran, reminisces about his hunting exploits and past confrontations. At the barracks, Erik and his comrades are doing their military service, a few kilometers from the border, in a deceptively calm atmosphere. The climate is cheerful, despite the looming threat of a new war.
September 2020. A surprise large-scale attack by Azerbaijan once again tips the region into chaos. Talish is bombed and invaded. The men go to the front. Samvel and Avo’s families find refuge in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. They have to come to terms with a new life of exile in this big, unfamiliar city. Karen flees and wanders the streets of Stepanakert, the capital of Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh. Erik is wounded, with one leg amputated, and begins a long road of convalescence.
Alexis Pazoumian delicately captures the trajectory of 3 generations of men whose lives and identities are shaped by this endless sacrificial war. Each in their own way, Samvel and Avo, Erik and Karen, deal with this bellicose heritage, with the physical and psychological scars of war, while dreaming of a peaceful future. Over a period of 3 years, he filmed the epilogue to the so-called black garden, a land where war waits for no one.
Headquartered in Berlin, AGBU Germany is the first German Chapter of the New York-based Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), the world’s largest non-profit organization devoted to upholding the Armenian heritage through educational, cultural, and humanitarian programs across the globe. AGBU has an active presence in 32 countries and 75 cities.
AGBU Germany was founded in 2020 in the awareness of its responsibility towards the Armenians in Germany, Armenia, Artsakh, and the Diaspora. Inspired by the unwavering determination of its mother organization AGBU founded in 1906, and in appreciation and recognition of its continuous achievements, the Chapter fits as a German link into the ranks of international AGBU Chapters as well as into the global Armenian nation.
