Armenian Film Festival UNDER SOVIET SKIES celebrating classic films from Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine.
From 25 May 2021 until 1 June 2021, the Armenian Institute in partnership with Klassiki, the world’s first ever streaming platform dedicated to classic cinema from Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, will host UNDER SOVIET SKIES, an online film festival spotlighting recently restored and newly subtitled classics of Armenian cinema and celebrating the theme of neighbourliness with films from Russia, Georgia and Ukraine.
The season will launch with a premiere of the 1966 classic, Hello, It’s Me! and is complimented with a week-long programme of live panel discussions, interviews and viewing parties. Learn more about the films here.
“One of our key goals of the Armenian Institute is to explore the connections Armenians have had with their historic and present neighbours. This festival is the perfect opportunity to celebrate our shared culture from the Soviet era, exploring intertwined and interweaved histories, differences, diversity, and interconnections.” says director of the Armenian Institute and festival curator Tatevik Ayvazyan. “Growing up in Soviet Union myself and being influenced, affected and touched by the Soviet cinema, I am incredibly excited to be able to share this exquisite bouquet of films with our audiences now, representing a wide range filmmaking, starting from Henrik Malyan’s intimate, lyrical A Piece of Sky to Mikhalkov’s epic Oscar-winning Burnt by the Sun.”
Burnt By The Sun, Nikita Mikhalkov (1994)
PROGRAMME
Tuesday 25 May 2021, 7pm BST
Hello! It’s Me Premiere, preceded by live Q&A with Vigen Galstyan, head of the National Cinema Centre of Armenia’s Heritage Department, Tatevik Ayvazyan, director of the Armenian Institute of London and Justine Waddell, founder of Klassiki.
Thursday 27 May 2021, 7pm BST
Live panel discussion exploring the theme of Soviet identity and film, how identities have been shaped and reshaped in the Soviet and post-Soviet space. With Emeritus Professor of Film Studies at Birkbeck College, Professor Ian Christie, prize winning Armenian author Nourtiza Matossian, researcher and curator Dr Maria Korolkova and Gareth Evans, film curator for the influential Whitechapel Gallery.