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 [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] 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 [+leggi anche:
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The International Competition gathers ten features. The Wolves Always Come at Night [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Australia/Mongolia/Germany) by Gabrielle Brady reflects on ecological dread through an ethnographic lens, while Under the Volcano [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Damian Kocur
scheda film] (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! [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], and Anne-Sophie Bailly’s My Everything [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Anne-Sophie Bailly
scheda film] (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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Olha Zhurba
scheda film] (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 [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Ecuador/Germany) by Misha Vallejo Prut, On the Edge [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Guérin Van de Vorst, Sophi…
scheda film] (Belgium) by Sophie Muselle and Guérin van de Vorst, and Holy Electricity [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Tato Kotetishvili
scheda film] (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 [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Norway/Netherlands) by Zaradasht Ahmed and Abo Zaabal 89 [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Germany/Egypt) by Bassam Mortada revisit histories of violence and state control, and Imago [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Déni Oumar Pitsaev
scheda film] (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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Morad Mostafa
scheda film] (Tunisia/Qatar/Egypt/France/Saudi Arabia/Sudan/Germany) by Morad Mostafa, and Once Upon a Time in Gaza [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Tarzan Nasser
scheda film] 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.