Sinopsis

SYNOPSIS This story takes place in the post-soviet period, after the Armenian-Azeri conflict. This could be described as a time when a huge empire was being ruined and different conflicts raised between nations. The film tells about a village situated near the conflict zone, where the benefactor of Armenian descent from America opened a charitable canteen and a nearby farm where refugees from different places worked. The story begins when the villagers find a buffalo list in the sloe, semi-brutal and half alive. They bring the buffalo to the farm, where it is regarded as a stranger and treated as an enemy by the dogs guarding the farm, animals gathered from here and there and farmers and refugees tired from the war who became brutal because of the far away explosions. We see the village life during the whole year through the eyes of the buffalo. Summer … autumn … and winter pass. The weathers change, but the monotonous life in the village goes on slowly. Following the buffalo we see the life surrounding the farm and the village.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT My interest in shooting the film BORDER is firstly provoked by the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. A conflict, which was a seriously prepared tragedy, a conflict which caused so many disasters…
It is always difficult for a filmmaker telling about war or political conflicts between nations to create real human characters. It is difficult, as the pain hasn’t gone; the wounds have not recovered yet… We still see Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan leaving there their homes and all they have. And I understood that telling about these people will be my goal, and by telling their stories I will be able to tell about the war and all the evil connected with it.
The story of the buffalo is a real story, and I was one of its witnesses. Now I want to recreate the story, which I once saw and which influenced me deeply. It is possible to realize it now as those places are mine cleaned whereas it was nearly impossible and very dangerous to go there before. And now it will be possible to meet people living in those territories, to find more characters, who resemble a lot to those I have once met and who can tell their stories which are always very tragic and always give the true picture and impact of the war.

Harutyun Khachatryan