The 22nd Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival (13-20 July), having established its special focus on cinema from the Caucasus and the Middle East, has logically opened with this year’s Palme d’Or winner, It Was Just an Accident [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whose first appearance on the international film circuit after a 14-year ban on leaving his country took place last year – and it just so happens that this took place in Yerevan, during the festival.

Another Iranian but US-based auteur is being honoured through a retrospective – Amir Naderi, whose body of work explores displacement, urban alienation and survival. As part of this, new, 4K restorations of Harmonica (1973), The Runner (1985) and the mid-length flick Waiting (1974) will be screened. A separate tribute is dedicated to Mauritanian film director (and this year’s international jury chair) Abderrahmane Sissako, with screenings of some of his pivotal works: The Court [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (2006), Timbuktu [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (2014) and Black Tea [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (2024).

The International Competition gathers ten features. The Wolves Always Come at Night [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Australia/Mongolia/Germany) by Gabrielle Brady reflects on ecological dread through an ethnographic lens, while Under the Volcano [+lee también:
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entrevista: Damian Kocur
ficha de la película] (Poland) by Damian Kocur examines the emotional state of a family in the outbreak of the war. Croatian director Igor Bezinović delivers a bold satire in Fiume o morte! [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], and Anne-Sophie Bailly’s My Everything [+lee también:
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entrevista: Anne-Sophie Bailly
ficha de la película] (France) offers a tender study of sadness and solitude. From Ukraine comes a poignant portrait of daily life in Kyiv under attack, Songs of Slow Burning Earth [+lee también:
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entrevista: Olha Zhurba
ficha de la película] (co-produced with Denmark, Sweden and France) by Olha Zhurba, while The Coin (Italy) by Emiliano Dante paints an experimental portrait of mourning. The selection also includes The World Upside Down (Argentina/Switzerland) by Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter, Light Memories [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Ecuador/Germany) by Misha Vallejo Prut, On the Edge [+lee también:
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entrevista: Guérin Van de Vorst, Sophi…
ficha de la película] (Belgium) by Sophie Muselle and Guérin van de Vorst, and Holy Electricity [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tato Kotetishvili
ficha de la película] (Georgia/Netherlands) by Tato Kotetishvili.

The Regional Competition traditionally foregrounds stories from the Middle East and the Caucasus: After Dreaming (Armenia/Mexico/USA) by Christine Haroutounian poetically captures introspective experiences, while The Crowd (Iran) by Sahand Kabiri depicts a fragmented Tehran through experimental imagery. The Lions by the River Tigris [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Norway/Netherlands) by Zaradasht Ahmed and Abo Zaabal 89 [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Germany/Egypt) by Bassam Mortada revisit histories of violence and state control, and Imago [+lee también:
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entrevista: Déni Oumar Pitsaev
ficha de la película] (France/Belgium) by Déni Oumar Pitsaev is an epic-length exploration of exile and transformation. Also featured are A Frown Gone Mad (Lebanon) by Omar Mismar, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (France/Palestine/Iran) by Sepideh Farsi, Tehran, An Unfinished History (Iran) by Saeed Nouri, Aisha Can't Fly Away [+lee también:
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entrevista: Morad Mostafa
ficha de la película] (Tunisia/Qatar/Egypt/France/Saudi Arabia/Sudan/Germany) by Morad Mostafa, and Once Upon a Time in Gaza [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tarzan Nasser
ficha de la película] by Tarzan and Arab Nasser (Palestine/UAE/France/Portugal/Germany/UK/Jordan).

The festival will close with the Armenian classic Last Station (1994) by Harutyun Khachatryan and Nora Armani, featuring a legendary local actor from the Soviet era, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan – thus constituting a lyrical homage to memory, place and Armenian cinema itself.