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VODKA
LEMON
7/10
Armenia
(Arm/Fr/Ity/Switz) 2003 : Hineer SALEEM : 88 mins
The film
depicts Armenia as a society verging on having sentimental feelings about
the old times of the Soviet Union. Their state of living has not become
better – possibly worse. The protagonist is an old man whose visits to
his wife’s grave have become a ritual. There he always meets a woman sitting
by another grave. We get to know them both, as well as their close relations,
through the relationship developing between them. This love story is so
full of respect and warmth that the snows of Armenia almost melt. It looks
indeed cold there, with snow, wind, slush, bad clothing and bad housing
– and still they do their drinking outside – Vodka Lemon!
Having experienced
a 20th century marked by terrible earthquakes, a notorious
genocide (see Ararat) and decades of Soviet control, it shouldn’t
be a surprise that Armenians are such a notably tough and durable bunch
– even in their American diaspora, which includes such famously indestructable
figures as Cher (born Cherilyn Sarkasian) and Andre Agassi (whose émigré
father changed his name from the more recognisably Armenian ‘Agassian’.)
 These
traits are visible in Vodka Lemon, a small-scale but thoroughly
beguiling chronicle of events in a small, remote village nestling among
the mountains. The plot emerges through the careful accumulation of detail,
with flinty old widower Hamo (Romik Avinian, a cross between Omar Sharif
and Harold Steptoe) drifting towards a delicate September-December romance
with attractive fiftysomething widow Nina (Lala Sarkissian - possibly
one of Cher’s long-lost relatives?).
It isn’t groundbreaking
stuff by any means, but writer-director Saleem (an Iraqi Kurd, now based
in Paris) deserves credit for the way his characters and story seem to
emerge organically from their sparse, snow-bound environment. While a
sub-plot involving the eventful wedding of Hamo’s grand-daughter tends
to get in the way a little, this doesn’t detract too much from the overall
atmosphere of genial charm that falls just the right side of whimsy. Saleem
even gets away with including a singing bus-driver, who ferries Hamo and
Nina to and from their spouse’s black granite graves.
Blending romance,
comedy and tragedy, Saleem avoids melodrama and the National Geographic
‘worthy ethnography’ trap by ensuring the story remains focussed on
the characters throughout (Avinian is very good in the central role),
and by constructing a world for them to inhabit that feels believably
real, though touched with moments of slightly off-kilter absurdity. The
opening shot shows an elderly bed-ridden gent being towed at speed down
a snowy road – and there’s a delightful (literally) “running” joke featuring
a horseman who gallops through many scenes without dialogue or explanation,
at one point even skilfully navigating his way between a couple of chairs.
Saleem also
handles the wider political issues behind Armenia’s current problems with
humour and restraint. “They pretended to do everything for us, and we
pretended to do everything for them,” someone remarks of the Soviets at
one point. “Now we have to pay for gas, electricity, water… we have nothing
left but our freedom.” Sitting on their wooden chairs outdoors, sipping
their favoured drink – Vodka Lemon – the Armenians display a seen-it-all
stoicism that will surely see them through this rocky transition to the
post-Communist world. “Why is it called Vodka Lemon, when it tastes like
almonds?” Someone asks. “That’s Armenia,” comes the matter-of-fact reply.
3rd February,
2004
(seen 13th January : Fokus Cinema, Tromsø – Tromsø
International Film Festival)
click
here for a full list of reviewed films from the Tromsø International
Film Festival 2004
by Neil
Young
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