'Lost in Armenia' is a sweet, funny movie, set in the Transcaucasus region (a chaotic area east of Turkey). It is in the vein of a comic version of Kurosawa's 'Kagemusha' or Heinlein's 'Double Star', or Anthony Hope's 'Prisoner of Zenda', a man who grows to fit the role into which he is unwillingly thrust.
After giving a show in neighboring enemy Azerbaijan, a hapless French actor gets lost, crosses an unmarked border, and has his car break down in Armenia. He speaks only French, and the villagers speak only Armenian.
Since he has Azerbaijani money, he is initially taken for a spy, but soon the villagers soon begin treating him as the honored savior described in a mysterious notebook. They bring him to solve their various problems -- electricity, gangs, rebuilding. Since there is no communication going on beyond 'OK', they are merely hearing what they want to hear. But things begin to get better....
It is less patronizing than my description makes it sound, and the comic possibilities of the inability to communicate are fully explored. Eventually, a government translator shows up, played by superb veteran Canadian-Armenian actress Arsinee Khanjian. The acting is excellent throughout, even those played by actual Armenian villagers.
At a Q&A, the director said he wanted to depict a Frenchman thrust into alien territory without a common language, so that we Westerners could experience the disorientation of a refugee who comes to the West. To underline the communication barrier, initially, most of the stuff said by the villagers is not subtitled for the movie viewer, so we viewers are as adrift as the Frenchman.
After giving a show in neighboring enemy Azerbaijan, a hapless French actor gets lost, crosses an unmarked border, and has his car break down in Armenia. He speaks only French, and the villagers speak only Armenian.
Since he has Azerbaijani money, he is initially taken for a spy, but soon the villagers soon begin treating him as the honored savior described in a mysterious notebook. They bring him to solve their various problems -- electricity, gangs, rebuilding. Since there is no communication going on beyond 'OK', they are merely hearing what they want to hear. But things begin to get better....
It is less patronizing than my description makes it sound, and the comic possibilities of the inability to communicate are fully explored. Eventually, a government translator shows up, played by superb veteran Canadian-Armenian actress Arsinee Khanjian. The acting is excellent throughout, even those played by actual Armenian villagers.
At a Q&A, the director said he wanted to depict a Frenchman thrust into alien territory without a common language, so that we Westerners could experience the disorientation of a refugee who comes to the West. To underline the communication barrier, initially, most of the stuff said by the villagers is not subtitled for the movie viewer, so we viewers are as adrift as the Frenchman.
