  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Color / 90 min.
Almost everywhere in Armenia you can hear the sound of hammers chiseling on stone.
More than ten years have passed since the terrible Armenian earthquake of 1988 claimed several thousand lives. In Giumri, Armenia’s second largest city, the streets are lined with ruined houses full of gaping windows, pipes and beams protruding from the walls. The main square, with a half-demolished church and an immense Marlboro advertisement, is a symbol of total desolation.
The earthquake destroyed one city, but “built” another — the city of the dead: the cemetery. It is constantly being improved, as new tombs and gravestones are set up. But what happens when there are so many dead and so few living?
Frescoes is a film about a handful of Armenians who have come to accept their lot in life. The local priest baptises in the morning, marries in the afternoon and buries in the evening. A twelve-year-old boy, who lives with his grandmother on the edge of the cemetery, exists on the boundary of childhood and the adult world. He is the only breadwinner for his little family, tending graves of a few rich people, which provides a small income. Garnik, an old man approaching seventy, is a gravedigger. He digs graves for his friends, neighbors, his countrypeople.
In this quiet film of survival after great tragedy, life goes on, even among the dead.
|
|
|
|
 |
You have no items in your shopping cart.
Total: $0.00
|
|
