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Suchen, Warten

Searching, Waiting

Followed by a talk with Laura Cwiertnia, Ofelia Maghakyan and Tessa Hofmann

Հանդիպում ցցահանդեսում (Meeting in the Exhibition)
Nerses Hovhannisyan, Armenian SSR 1968, 22 min., Armenian original version with English subtitles, digital

Bon Voyage
Garegin Papoyan, Armenia 2020, 69 min., Armenian original version with English subtitles, DCP

Meeting in the exhibition is one of the early examples of a film to directly address the Armenian Genocide. At an exhibition, the taxi driver Arutyun sees a painting of an orphan that reminds him of his brother whom he lost in 1918; he begins to search for the painter.

Bon Voyage, the impressive feature debut of filmmaker Garegin Papoyan, is reminiscent of the works of Frederick Wiseman: an unadorned and patient observation of the everyday workflow at an airport, namely the airport of the Republic of Artsakh in Stepanakert, which is waiting for regular flight connections to be established. As of December 2023, this possibly remains forever a utopian wish. 

Laura Cwiertnia is an editor at the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT and a writer. Born in 1987, she grew up in a German-Armenian family in Bremen. In 2022, her multi-award-winning novel debut “We are called differently on the street” was published by Klett-Cotta-Verlag. The novel tells the story of an Armenian family between Bremen, Istanbul, Jerusalem and Yerevan.

Ofelia Maghakyan, born in Yerevan, worked in the editorial team of the Berliner Zeitung until 2019. At the beginning of 2020, her digitalization orientation brought her to the product division of the Berlin publishing house, where she has since formed the interface between editorial and technical development as a project manager. She also works as a freelance lecturer with a focus on digital media and mobile strategies.

Tessa Hofmann, Prof. h.c., Dr. phil. is a philologist (Slavonic and Armenian studies) and sociologist with a focus on genocide research and migration. She has published on the history and contemporary situation of Armenia and its diaspora and on the background and course of the conflict in and around Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh. Among other things, she is an honorary member of the Society for Threatened Peoples and chairwoman and founding member of the human rights organization Arbeitsgruppe Anerkennung - Gegen Genozid, für Völkerverständigung (AGA) e.V. (Working Group Recognition - Against Genocide, for International Understanding).