Embers
Spring Grant 2012 - Post-Production Stage
Tamara Stepanyan / Feature Documentary / Armenia, Lebanon, Qatar / 2012 / 77 min / Colour / Original Language: Armenian, Russian / Interests: Documentary, Politics, Based on a True Story
Synopsis
A dialogue between two generations is represented by Tamara, the grandchild of an older Tamara who has passed away. This journey explores the past and the present; the nostalgia of an era that is at once absent, yet still here because of those members of that earlier time. They are Tamara’s friends, who fought with her in World War II in 1945. The young Tamara – me – went in search of them to bring my grandmother to life through their souvenirs, ideologies, fights and remembrances. The main protagonist of the film is an absent hero. The subject of the film is a feeling – the feeling of loss and disappearance; of a time that once existed, but now only the almost invisible remnants are still here. The film is not about one person, ideology or belief; it is about the totality of loss.
Credits
- Director
- Tamara Stepanyan
- Screenwriter
- Tamara Stepanyan
- Producer
- Tamara Stepanyan, Michele Tyan
About the Director
Tamara Stepanyan was born in Armenia and moved with her parents to Lebanon in 1994. After studying and working there, she moved to France, where she is currently developing her first narrative feature. Stepanyan has participated in film workshops in South Korea, at the Asian Film Academy as part of the Busan International Film Festival in 2007; and in Denmark, in an exchange programme at Den Danske Filmskole, in 2012. She has won several international awards for her films.
Awards and Festival History
Festivals
Busan International Film Festival 2013 (South Korea)
Seoul Independent Documentary Film & Video Festival 2013, New voices of Asian Cinema (South Korea)
Ayam Beirut el Cinema'iya 2013 (Lebanon)
Doha Tribeca Film Festival 2012, in Arab Film Competition
Received Mecenat Award (Documentaries) at the Busan International Film Festival 2012