Underplayed Gems

In That Distant Neighboring Village (2006)

In That Distant Neighboring Village poster
Directed by
Ayaz Salayev
Country
Armenia, Azerbaijan
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This is a pair of short films that show everyday life in two neighboring villages, one Armenian and one Azerbaijani. The films present the people and their routines both before and after a war that affected both communities.

observationalquietreflectivesoberingslow-pacedwistfulminimaldocumentary-style

What happens

In That Distant Neighboring Village is the name of two 25 minute films, each depicting the lives of Armenians in the village of Aygepar, Armenia and Azerbaijanis in the village of Əlibəyli, Azerbaijan, both of which are visible from each other. The Armenian film was directed by Ara Shirinyan and scripted by Tigran Paskevichyan while the Azerbaijani film was directed by Ayaz Salaev and scripted by Eljan Mamedov. The filmmakers on both sides agreed that the films would be strictly symmetrical and that there would be no off-screen narration. The films, which focus on the lives of the villagers before and after the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, were co-funded by the Armenian Branch of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the Armenian Round Table Foundation (ARTF) and the Inter-Church Organization for Cooperation Development (ICCO) of the Netherlands. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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