Description

2023, Germany, 66 min.

 Director: Aviva Barkhourdarian

 Visiting historic locations in contemporary Berlin, Aviva Barkhourdarian retells the many stories surrounding her father, Vigen, against the backdrop of the divided German capital during the Cold War. As an Armenian with socialist ideals, Vigen comes to Berlin from Iran with nothing but a hand-knotted carpet and a tin of caviar. Settling in, he finds himself caught up between ideologies, various intelligence agencies, and the Shah of Persia, while navigating the strange German language and daughters on both sides of the Berlin Wall. Weaving together personal memories, archival footage, and animation into a cheerful collage, Barkhourdarian’s essay film offers a deeply personal view of her father and his entanglement in the dramatic events of world history in the 1960s and early 1970s. After the Wall fell and Vigen moved back to Berlin, what happened to his dreams and ideals? And what does this have to do with pomegranates?

 

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