Kritiken (1)
In this film, everything is permeated with the essence of death - the death of the homeland means the death of its people, and the disappearance of national substance in the form of traditions, history, or monuments kills the children of the nation, even those furthest away from the places where their native land gave them life and filled that life with meaning (the film is, as they say today, very essentialist, fortunately only in an introspective intimate manner, so we only encounter nationalist remarks towards other nations in the most necessary cases). However, the brilliance of the film lies in capturing death, decay, and slow decline in the entire mise-en-scène - every square centimeter of Askarian's shots of materialized dreams and memories screams "extinction!" at the viewer. Every object filling the space in front of the camera is a silent witness to the end of one history and one nation, and it reflects the agonizing nostalgia of an exile whose world is falling apart and whose every idea and memory of homeland can only be consumed by the decay of his homeland and thus his inner self. Inanimate objects of the mise-en-scène are personified and brought to life only for that necessary moment, so they can die - their movement is a symbolic contrast to the characters, who, at first glance, appear to be alive but are already dead (and their acting is lifeless, but not Bressonian).
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