The film I’m going to tell you about, is an attention-grabbing in its history. First of all, I’m an Armenian, born in Gyumri, Armenia, which once used to be huge and powerful located in the eastern part of the Mount Ararat. Yes, today we have eastern and western Armenia because of the “crime made against the Armenian nation”, one of the greatest holocausts ever held, when one and a half million Armenians were slaughtered. Every time I’m looking at the Mount Ararat I’m getting the feeling of bitterness and melancholy. I had been dreaming to go to Western Armenia and see the capital of our ancestors and so, I made my lifelong dream come true. I saw Ani, the famous city which was once the capital of Armenia, but now divided by borders: melancholy and the inheritance left by our ancestors, this was all to experience. But I was close to it, so close that I could touch the ruins of the city. By coincidence or providence, don’t know for sure, I got an offer to go to Kars and take part in the Kars International Film Festival. I seem to have seen everything in Kars: streets, houses, buildings, and even water and air. Nothing changed except people.
2009, November, Szolnok city, Hungary, “International Scientific Film Festival; high spirits, good impression, applauses, new meetings, discussions and, at last, the award. “The General Prize goes to the president of “Youth Film” film and photo studio Arman Mazmanyan who represents the film “Both sides of Ararat””, I was excited, so excited that could hardly utter a word. After I had arrived in Yerevan I decided to visit Tsitsernakaberd and pay tribute to the victims of Genocide, and wished that no such holocausts or wars ever happen in the world, people live in safe and happiness. And Ararat is the place symbolizing the phase of new life.