“My younger brother Soghomon, 21, a music student, was close to completing his mandatory military service when Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) War flared up again in 2020. Soghomon disappeared on the seventh day of the War. I started seeking information on my brother’s whereabouts, but 10 days of ceaseless inquiring proved to be in vain … I was a musician who had never studied filmmaking, but the emotions that had overwhelmed my family gave me the urge to pick up my phone camera 10 days later and document everything that my parents and I were going through. Nobody imagined that this footage could become a film … The War lasted 44 days. I kept shooting for another 2 years … We received the news of his death on February 2021 … Soghomon’s remains were assigned the code 1489, which stood for ‘Body of individual missing in action’. This number brought a bitter end to our story, but provided closure, which many families still lack.” (S. Vardanyan)
1489 premiered at the latest IDFA, where it was awarded Best Film and FIPRESCI Prize.
Sceneggiatura, fotografia / Screenplay, Photography: Shoghakat Vardanyan
Montaggio / Editing: Tigran Baghinyan, Armen Papyan
Suono / Sound: Hayk Israelyan
Produzione / Produced by: Shoghakat Vardanyan
Shoghakat Vardanyan
Shoghakat Vardanyan was born in 1993 in Yerevan, Armenia. Musician, in 2014, she graduated from the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan with a Bachelor’s in Piano. Since 2017 she has been playing free improvisations and became a part of the Contemporary Sound Orchestra of Yerevan. She participated in the EurasiaDoc Armenia workshop, as well as the DocTrain Armenia Workshop, where she was mentored by the Russian filmmaker and producer Marina Razbezhkina. 1489 is her first film.
