Gyumri

On 7th December 1988, Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city, was razed to the ground by an earthquake. A third of the victims were children. Since then, the city has recovered from the disaster, but the superficial dressings cover deeper wounds. Gyumri reveals an invisible and persistent inner pain. Twenty years on, the families have still not finished grieving for their dead children. This impossible acceptance of death has given rise to irrational beliefs. After the quake, there was a wave of newborn children, whose mothers gave them the names of their deceased siblings. The dead thus continue to live on in the features of the living and the living feel inhabited and directed by the souls of their dead counterparts. What grips the film even more than persistent suffering is the shock wave that continues to propagate its effects. (Yann Lardeau)