30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

Before the Russia-Ukraine conflict, only women, children, and the elderly lived in many villages in Armenia. The men looked for work in Russia, in construction or in factories, leaving the women alone to take care of everything. Mariam lives with her mother and her daughter. She takes care of the field, the livestock, and the house and spends some moments of leisure with her friends. On her birthday, hopes of seeing her husband return from Russia are shattered with a video call. It is clear, even from small details, how these women still live under the shadows of patriarchal society, where men, even if absent, remain the heads of the family. Anush was also left alone by her husband, particularly on her path to motherhood. Mariam and her other friends will take on the task of supporting her, with the strength of the group and the affection that binds them. An African proverb says: "It takes an entire village to raise a child".

• 

  Ophelia Harutyunyan

  Ophelia Harutyunyan is an Armenian producer and director. After studying at Stockholm University, she obtained a Master of Fine Arts at Columbia University in New York. She produced Crazy, Not Insane (2020), which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and the Emmy-nominated The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019). She co-directed Totally Under Control (2020). Her latest short, It Takes a Village (2022) received an award at the Huesca International Film Festival, Spain.