Today I watched yet another ‘unknown’ Armenian film and encourage everyone seeing it.

My friends and I went to to see Stone Time Touch (2007), which is being shown in Colorado as part of the 30th Denver Film Festival.

A summary of the film at The New York Times states:

Award-winning Canadian filmmaker Gariné Torossian interweaves memory, loss, and expectation in this experimental documentary, which follows actress Arsinée Khanjian through an Armenia that seems half-real and half-imagined. During her time spent filming director Atom Egoyan‘s Calendar in Armenia, Khanjian was treated to numerous stories of filmmaker Torossian‘s distant homeland. But so much can change over time, and now as these two curious souls explore a land rich in religious iconography and haunted by history viewers will bear witness to a decidedly nontraditional study in identity, home, and place.

Having born and lived in Armenia for over 16 years, I actually saw many things in the film that I didn’t know much about.  Instead of showing the developed side of Armenia, it takes you to the homes of the most oppressed people and makes you hear their stories.

A short reference to human trafficking almost brings one to tears, and yet the passage fails to explain what trafficking is and how it actually works.

The most interesting point of the film is the attempt to explain the connection of Armenians to their sacred stones.  And it’s a difficult task.  Although the film doesn’t articulate it, Armenian connection to historic churches is more than Christianity.  The stones give them sense of identity and are a sort of time travel to the days when Armenia was defining its identity.  It sounds like earth worshiping – closer to the way Native Americans honor the nature and mountains.

This film is a MUST see.