THE SHEPHERD’S SONG

PIEŚŃ PASTERZA

Somewhere in the high mountains of Armenia, there lives a blind shepherd Khachik. In spite of all the adversities, he has set up a family and leads a quiet life, single-handedly herding his goats on the steep slopes. However, when it turns out that his only son is losing his sight too and has to move to Yerevan to attend a school for the blind, Khachik faces a dilemma: should he keep on living the life of a humble shepherd, or should he move to the capital city too to be with his son? This is a difficult choice for him as he strongly believes that blindness is a curse hanging over his family, and that the only living a devout life in the mountains can lift it.

FILM REPRESENTED BY KRAKOW FILM FOUNDATION

  • Genre: Documentary
  • Country: ARMENIA
  • Running time: 30
  • Year: 2014
  • Color: kolorowy

Director: Vahram Mkhitaryan

Script: Vahram Mkhitaryan

DOP: Vahram Mkhitaryan

Music: Arsen Babajanyan

Editing: Daniel Gąsiorowski

Production company: Wajda Studio

Trailer

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About the director:

Vahram Mkhitaryan

Vahram Mkhitaryan

was born in 1977 in Armenia. He is director and photographer. In 2001, Vahram Mkhitaryan graduated from Armenian State Pedagogical University, Culture Faculty, Department of Feature Films Directing (Dmitry Kesayants’ studio). After that he was engaged in production of Public Service Announsments as director, cinematographer and scriptwriter. In 2005 he came to Poland as a scholar of The Lane Kirkland Program of Polish-American Freedom Foundation and Polish-American Fulbright Commission. He worked as assistant at Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. In 2009 and 2011 received scholarship of Polish Ministry of Culture “Gaude Polonia”. He graduated from Wajda School’s programmes –  “Development Lab” for feature films and “DokPro” for documentary films. In 2014 he finished his first independent documentary film “Shepherd`s Song” and short debut film “Milky Brother”. Both films are first Polish-Armenian co-productions.

At festivals:

14th T-mobile New Horizons International Film Festival, Poland, 2014 (competition)

14th International Film Festival Watch Docs, Poland, 2014 (screening)

7th Go Short International Short Film Festival Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 2015 (competition)

63rd Trento Film Festival, Italy, 2015 (competition)

29th Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia, 2015 (Best Audiovisual Portrayal)

12th Yerevan International Film Festival Golden Apricot, Armenia, 2015 (competition)

Thessaloniki International Short Film Festival 2015, Greece, 2015 (competition)

25th Message to Man International FF, Russia, 2015 (Best Debut)

7th Baghdad International Film Festival, Iraq, 2015 (screening)

Apricot Tree - International Ethno Film Fest 2015, Armenia, 2015 (competition)

24th dokumentART European Film festival for Documentaries, Germany , 2015 (competition)

DISFMF – Dublin International Short Film and Music Festival, 2015, Ireland, 2015 (competition)

Szczecin European Film Festival 2015, Poland/Germany, 2015 (competition)

Play Poland Film Festival, United Kingdom, 2015 (screening)

10th Miradas Doc - International Documentary Film Festival, Spain, 2015 (competition)

Bansko Mountain Film Fest, Bulgaria, 2015 (competition)

Autrans Mountain Film Festival, France, 2015 (competition)

13th Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival, Nepal, 2015 (2nd Runner Up Award)

"Cinema Verite" Iran International Documentary FF, Iran, 2015 (competition)

14th One Shot International Short Film Festival, Armenia, 2016 (competition)