Details
Vrej, the subject of Sareen Hairabedian’s impressive feature debut – a striking coming-of-age tale – has grown up in Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan. Since the end of the Soviet era it has witnessed much conflict.
The 11-year-old watches birds, plays with friends and dreams of being a dentist. But echoes of the three wars his family have lived through since 1992 are ever-present. His grandmother laments the cycle of ethnic violence: ‘Living in Artsakh means that one day there will be a war and my grandson will participate in that war’.
As his school lessons become increasingly militarised and Vrej struggles to hold on to his childhood dreams, his grandmother watches her prophecy unfold.
The screening is proudly co-presented by the Armenian Film Society London. Followed by a Q&A with director Sareen Hairabedian, hosted by the AFSL co-founder Tatevik Ayvazyan.
AFS London was established in 2024 by US-based Armenian Film Society (since 2015), curator Kira Adibekov and filmmaker Tatevik Ayvazyan to run an annual festival and regular cultural events both for the Armenian community and non-Armenian audiences. The second edition of the Armenian Film Festival London is going to take place at the ICA in December 2025․
This screening will be Open Captioned and a British Sign Language interpreter will be visible on stage throughout the event.
In this joint curation between Bertha DocHouse and Sheffield DocFest, audiences are invited to discover the gems, highlights and new voices in non-fiction cinema which premiered in the past festival edition.
