A short film by Christopher Atamian and Ara Oshagan
Directed by Ara Oshagan
Written by Christopher Atamian
2020, color, 4:16 mins
Responding to the sudden onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Resurrection Myth is a poetic meditation on alienation, dread and the possibility of (un)imagined futures. Weaving darkness and light, in both word and imagery, the film’s foreboding and hypnotic rhythm explores questions of history, current-day societal crises, love of another (man), technology, indigenous rights, good/evil and apocalyptic ends. Amid the sound of sirens and dark light, where are the mysterious young men walking silent going? What does a post-pandemic world, especially a world facing unprecedented violence and environmental disaster, hold for us? Echoes of cataclysms, extinctions and resurrections recur throughout the film like a silent dialogue.
The film also considers possible redemptions in another trance-like recurring narrative, that of Pokr Mher. This mythological anti-hero of the Armenian National Epic, David of Sassoon, has retreated to a sealed cave on Raven’s Rock, where he awaits to one day return and prophet-like, judge humanity. What will he think of the world as he now sees it? Will he bring salvation or doom?
Resurrection Myth is written in English but narrated in Western Armenian, a language currently on the UN endangered language list and perhaps on the brink of extinction. The film’s use of Western Armenian temporarily resurrects the language, but could also point to its inevitable end.
Subtle in its poetic language and hypnotic in its imagery, Resurrection Myth is a winner of the Gulbenkian Foundation’s 2020 Be Heard! Prize and selected for the ARPA and the Tokyo International film festivals. It was produced in July 2020 through a bi-costal collaboration between Atamian and Oshagan.