When Soghomon Vardanyan, 21, a music student, was close to completing his mandatory military service, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) War flared up again in 2020. Soghomon disappeared on the seventh day of the War and his sister, musician turned director  Shoghakat started filming her waiting, her search and that of her whole family to understand what happened. This is how documentary film 1489 was born and how Shoghakat Vardanyan became a filmmaker.

The film had its italian premiere at the 35th Trieste Film Festival after winning documentary festival IDFA’s best prize. The jury at the Festival wrote that the film showed how cinema could also become a “tool of survival”.

Shoghakat Vardanyan does not only agree with this definition but adds that the jury also said that cinema and this film in particular was “an act of love”.

After this experience filming herself and her whole family processing happenings, injustice and loss, Shoghakat Vardanyan confirms that she wants to pursue the filmmaking career and definitely wear the film director’s hat beside the musician’s one.

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