HE TRIUMPH OF ARMENIAN FILM INDUSTRY: AUTUMN OF THE MAGICIAN

“Once upon a time there was an angel with a mustache, who couldn’t do anything either on earth or in the sky. One day he entered the cabin of a hunter and started to feed stuffed birds with grain. Everybody was laughing at him. But one day the stuffed birds came back to life. They flapped their wings and flied to the sky. Everybody was laughing, but this time it was with joy. The angel with a mustache was laughing too. If we had enough imagination, these birds would come back to life too. And they would fly to the sky. Because magic exists!”
These words belong to the man about whom a movie-portrait the “Autumn of the Magician” was shot. It is about a man who has an extraordinarily rich inner world that does not at all resemble our usual reality. It is about a man, whose literary works are included in school programs and at the university level, whose movies, shot with Antonioni and Fellini, received the most prestigious international awards and became the classics of the genre. It is about a man, who jokingly tells the story about him and Antonioni being proposed to direct the film “Eros”, when both were above 80. They had to call for help their memories and draw … the Kama Sutra.
There is not a single corner in all of Italy, where a man who made the words “We should not forget about our past” his life slogan, did not leave his vestiges: the Garden of Forgotten Fruits, the Corner for the Abandoned Madonna’s, the Master’s message-carpets “written” on the ground, long conversations of the stone, glass, water and human imagination, fountains that came to him from fairy tales and are spread all over Italy now, the chapel for the memory of Andrei Tarkovsky built with the old stones taken from ancient cathedrals…
In one of their joint movies with Fellini “And the Ship Sails On”, the boat sinks while everyone sings. This means art opposes death and triumphs. Doesn't that mean there is hope for us? The main character of the film proves it. Tonino Guerra is “a poet, a scriptwriter, a writer, a painter, a sculptor, a playwright, an architect, a journalist, a builder, a patron of the arts, a teacher, a metal worker, an inventor, a public figure, an agronomist, a gardener, a chemist and all together a brave man. On top he is also a football player and a saxophone player”.
“I would like that this film, which you are shooting, my friends, that it wouldn't talk to me as a man who wrote stories for many movies or that I found poetic words that probably helped people. I would like this film to give courage and strength to people, so they believe as they see me that I love to live. I would like to say again that the sound of rain is beautiful, and that when snow falls and whitens our thoughts, it's wonderful.” These words by Tonino Guerra conclude the film “Autumn of the Magician”, which was shot by Tonino's friends.
The documentary was directed by Ruben and Vaheh Gevorgyants and produced by SHARM Holding, as well as PAYT and HAYK studios. The producers of the film are Ruben Jaghinyan and Vaheh Gevorgyants.
Recently, the film has been awarded by the CIS Executive Committee for the “Films without the borders” nomination at the “Falling Leaves” film festival in Minsk, Belorus. Earlier the film became the winner at the Golden Tambourine (Zolotoy Bouben), the XII International Festival of TV Programs and Films in Khanti-Mansiysk. At the New Cinema XXI Film Festival Moscow the film was awarded the first prize. It is worth mentioning, that the “Autumn of the Magician” was presented within the framework of the main competition programs of Rome Independent Film Festival (Italy), NIKA (Russia), Message to Man (Russia) as well as at the non-competitive programs XXI century Images (Greece) and East Silver (Czech Republic).
The “Autumn of the Magician” keeps its triumph procession along its path through international film industry.

Provided by Sharm Holding