Artavazd Peleshian

Parajanov lifts the curtain on numerous unfinished scenes and fragments of unshot films. These are memories of his childhood, death, friends, Tiflis, Kyiv, Yerevan. Seven stories from the life of Parajanov and the close circle that shared his entire life path with him.

While it was long thought that his filmography had concluded with the film Life in 1993, Peleshian has now returned with a new film, simply titled La Nature, through which he once again observes the delicate cohabitation of human communities with their environment. Gathered from the internet, most of the images that compose the film are fragile, amateur-shot traces from within nature and its tremors that regularly rock these communities. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis form the film’s visual fabric, and are set against images of grandiose natural landscapes. A visual elegy, the film resolutely acknowledges the superiority of nature, with its unrelenting force, capable of transcending all human ambition. With this, the filmmaker seems to remind us that humankind will not emerge victorious from the ecological havoc that it has created.

The tranquility of a remote Armenian mountain community is disrupted when a group of shepherds affected by the pangs of an evening hunger, decide to butcher and barbecue the sheep of another's that have strayed into their herd. An official inquiry by the city police complicates matters, and questions of law, morality and community only seem to lead to further entanglements.

The last collaboration of Artavazd Peleshian and cinematographer Mikhail Vartanov is a film-essay about Armenia's shepherds, about the contradiction and the harmony between man and nature, scored to Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Poetic film about the struggle of man's will and muscles against nature, about the rock-climbers who prevent landslides and eliminate their consequences.

Poetic essay about the beginning of life from labor pains and birth and about its symbolic meaning.

While it was long thought that his filmography had concluded with the film Life in 1993, Peleshian has now returned with a new film, simply titled La Nature, through which he once again observes the delicate cohabitation of human communities with their environment. Gathered from the internet, most of the images that compose the film are fragile, amateur-shot traces from within nature and its tremors that regularly rock these communities. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis form the film’s visual fabric, and are set against images of grandiose natural landscapes. A visual elegy, the film resolutely acknowledges the superiority of nature, with its unrelenting force, capable of transcending all human ambition. With this, the filmmaker seems to remind us that humankind will not emerge victorious from the ecological havoc that it has created.

The last collaboration of Artavazd Peleshian and cinematographer Mikhail Vartanov is a film-essay about Armenia's shepherds, about the contradiction and the harmony between man and nature, scored to Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

The last collaboration of Artavazd Peleshian and cinematographer Mikhail Vartanov is a film-essay about Armenia's shepherds, about the contradiction and the harmony between man and nature, scored to Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Poetic film about the struggle of man's will and muscles against nature, about the rock-climbers who prevent landslides and eliminate their consequences.

Poetic essay about the beginning of life from labor pains and birth and about its symbolic meaning.

Poetic essay about the beginning of life from labor pains and birth and about its symbolic meaning.

Philosophical essay about the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, its influence on the destiny of the world in the 20th century.

The film tells about the most significant church holidays and religious rites.

Inhabitants depicts animals in panic: the film is mostly filled with shots of mass migrations and stampedes (some, surprisingly, filmed from a helicopter). The title equalizes the species of the earth. Artavazd Peleshian merely alludes to the presence of human beings—a few silhouettes that seem to be the cause of these vast, anxious movements of animal fear. In many ways, this film is an ode to the animal world that moves toward formal abstraction, with clouds of silver birds pulverizing light. Peleshian said, “It’s hard to give a verbal synopsis of these films. Such films exist only on the screen, you have to see them.”

Peleshian transforms footage from a train ride into a metaphor for the shape of a life. Early images of faces on the train give way to landscape, a journey through a black tunnel, and a final emergence into pure white light.

A man paves his own way to his own soul through an intellectual quest, tragedies of nations and personal drama. The road moving through the cosmic distances is a flight into one's internal world. This flight and this drama are revealed in this philosophical film-poem.

A man paves his own way to his own soul through an intellectual quest, tragedies of nations and personal drama. The road moving through the cosmic distances is a flight into one's internal world. This flight and this drama are revealed in this philosophical film-poem.

Monumental picture exploring the identity and fate of the Armenian nation.

Monumental picture exploring the identity and fate of the Armenian nation.

This is the subject of ongoing discovery of the beauty of the world, that man makes in his life and in his work, which is being developed as part of a big city, presented during a day's work. This film starts and ends with the rotating image of the sculpture of Rodin the Thinker; this famous sculpture has long since become the symbol of the unchanging expression of human thought.

This is the subject of ongoing discovery of the beauty of the world, that man makes in his life and in his work, which is being developed as part of a big city, presented during a day's work. This film starts and ends with the rotating image of the sculpture of Rodin the Thinker; this famous sculpture has long since become the symbol of the unchanging expression of human thought.