Archive of films Don't Look into the Mirror / Mi nayir hayelun

Armenia
2009, 101 min

Section: East of the West - Competition
Year: 2010

One day, an aging, none-too-attractive man, whose artistic ambitions faded long ago, looks in the mirror and sees an entirely different person. His life changes into a bizarre series of comic and tragic episodes. Director Suren Babayan based his visually rich, surreal movie on the novel by Perch Zeytuntsyan as an original variation on the classic tale of the mirror double.

Synopsis

What is left for an aging, none-too-attractive man whose artistic ambitions faded long ago? The past, once so full of hope, is only a boozy memory of bohemian friends who don’t take him any more seriously than he does himself. Is there any way that he can change his life? Fate, of course, decides for him: one day while looking in the mirror he sees a completely different man, one who does what he wants and indiscriminately meddles in the protagonist’s life. And what’s worse, there are multiple, willful mirror doubles. The hero’s life changes into a succession of bizarre, comic and tragic episodes. To be sure, the dialogue with his own past, with his conscience, and with his hopes for the future presupposes that one day he will step outside the mirror’s frame. And who is actually outside and who is inside the frame anyway? Director Suren Babayan based his visually rich, surreal movie on the novel by Perch Zeituntsyan as an original variation on the classic tale of the mirror double.

About the director

Suren Babayan (b. 1950, Yerevan, Armenia), screenwriter and director, graduated in theater direction from the Yerevan State Institute of Cinema and Theater, and in film direction from the Higher Courses at the Moscow State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), Nikita Mikhalkov’s master class. He sparked interest with his debut The Cry of a Peacock (Siramargi tchiche, 1982), co-directed by Mikael Dovlatyan. In 1987 he debuted on his own with the fantasy film The Thirteenth Disciple, based on Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. Other films: the feature drama Blood (Aryun, 1990), the short P.S. (1993), the surreal story Crazy Angel (Khent hreshtak, 2000), based on the novel Barabbas by Swedish Nobel Prize winner Pär Lagerkvist, and the drama Jeano (2004). In 1990 he wrote the script for Dovlatyan’s crime mystery Facing the Wall (Demqov depi pate, 1990).

Contacts

National Cinema Centre of Armenia
Tereyan 3a, 001, Yerevan
Armenia
Tel: +374 105 182 31
Fax: +374 105 002 31
E-mail: [email protected]

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About the film

Color, 35 mm
European premiere

Section:	East of the West - Competition

Director:	Suren Babayan
Screenplay:	Suren Babayan na motivy románu P. Zeituntsyana / based on the novel by Perch Zeituntsyan
Dir. of Photography:	Gevorg Sarkisyan
Music:	Eduard Hayrapetyan
Editor:	Artur Soghomonyan
Producer:	Gevorg Gevorgyan, Vardan Abovyan
Production:	National Cinema Centre of Armenia
Cast:	Jean Pierr Nshanyan, Rafael Kotanjian, Mariam Davtyan
Contact:	National Cinema Centre of Armenia

Guests

Gevorg Gevorgyan

Producer

Zhan-Pier Nshanian

Actor