SYNOPSIS
The central character is Edgar Novents, a well-known writer and lecturer on the Department of Journalism of the University. He is focused on writing a novel about Rev. Komitas, the great Armenian composer and musicologist, and this provides the bridge between the present and the past. Relying on historical facts, archived documents, psychological hypotheses, Edgar Novents tries to elicit the Paris period of Komitas' life, to penetrate the enigma of the last years of life of the great son of the Armenian people in the Psychiatric hospital of Villejuif, to bring to light his Great Silence in a gentle and restrained way. To convey fidelity to his novel, The Great Silence, Edgar Novents is trying to share in and understand the sufferings of his literary hero. As a wellbornintellectual, Edgar Novents also is the chronicler of his time, he is always in the focus of modern events, which have been so much shaped by the horrors of the past.
CAST & CREW
Vigen Chaldranyan
Director
Producer(s)
Vigen Chaldranyan, Gevorg Gevorgyan, Karen Ghazaryan
Script
Vigen Chaldranyan, Ruben Hovsepyan
Director of Photography
Artur Ustyan
Production designer
Vigen Chaldranyan
Music by
Andranik Berberyan , Claude Debussy, Komitas, Avet Terteryan
Sound
Tigran Kuzikyan, Arman Avetisyan
Edit
Manvel Hovsepyan
Cast
Vardan Mkrtchyan, Ani Ghazaryan, Arto Khachaturyan, Vache Sharafyւan
Production company(ies)
National Cinema Center of Armenia, Sharm Holding
Vigen Chaldranyan
Film director, scriptwriter, producer and actor Vigen Chaldranyan entered Yerevan Institute of Art and Theatre in 1975, and after graduating from the Department of Art of Acting, studied Theatre Directing at the same Institute. Later he studied in the Department of Film Directing at Moscow All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) where in 1978, he shot his first short film Gold Laughs. Vigen Chaldranyan has created nineteen films. In 2001, the President of the Republic of Armenia awarded him the Movses Khorenatsi Medal. In 2006, Chaldranyan was awarded RA Union of Cinematographers’ Anahit Award for his contributions to Armenian cinematography. In 2007, he was given the title of the Honorary Worker of Art of the Republic of Armenia. In 2008, Chaldranyan was elected as a Full member, academician of the International Academy of Sciences of Nature and Society. In the same year the Western European Academy of Sciences and Arts awarded him Professor Sofi Takhalova’s Golden Star Award (Netherlands). The European Academy of Natural Sciences awarded him Gold Cross of Ludwig II of Bavaria (Germany, 2009). In 2010, the US branch of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences awarded him the title of academician along with the Crown and Eagle Medal for his contribution to filmmaking. In 2010, the Fridtjof Nansen Fund in Armenia awarded him the Fridtjof Nansen Golden Medal. Chaldranyan has also received prizes and diplomas at various IFFs.
Filmography
April (1985), A Voice in the Wilderness… (1991), My Farewell to Be… (1993), Armenians (1994), …I Returned Home (1993), Chrism (1996), Lord, Have Mercy (1997), Symphony of Silence (2001), The Priestess (2007), Tours in Japan (2009), Maestro (2010), The Voice of Silence (2013), Alter Ego (2016).
