Les Saisons

1972 , 29′ , noir et blanc , documentaire
Réalisation : Artavazd Pelechian. Production : studio Erevan, Artavazd Pelechian.

Life in the Armenian mountains is evoked by striking images of the harshness of the work (transhumance, harvesting of hay) and the emotion reigning in the festivals. A non-narrative cinematographic poem, without comments, to music by Vivaldi, sometimes interrupted by synchronous sounds.

A man struggles in the torrent, catches a sheep, drowns perhaps, is swept away again. A group of men, a sheep in their arms, run down steep and rocky or snowy slopes at a furious pace. They pull, push, hold back or are carried away by the haystacks sliding down the hills. A truck, stuck in the mud, which people try to free at night under torrential rain. The man being swept away by the torrent is now getting married, he’s wearing his best clothes, his wife laughs, cries, backed up by her girlfriends who hug her in turn. A dimension, which is both simple and mystic, of scenes from everyday life, rendered by a film editing of a rare force.