Artsakh Director Jivan Avetisyan’s ‘The Last Inhabitant’ Picked Up by HBO

STEPANAKERT, Artsakh (A.W.)—The Eastern European distribution rights for Artsakh-Armenian director Jivan Avetisyan’s film “The Last Inhabitant” were recently acquired by HBO.

Speaking to Stepanakert-based Artsakhpress, Avetisyan said the film will be screened through the Time Warner-owned, American premium cable and satellite television network in several Eastern European countries, including Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Macedonia.

“We are constantly working towards new screenings of the film, and, I am sure, the number of countries and film festivals will increase,” Avetisyan said about his latest feature. “At the moment, we are planning to screen the film in a number of other U.S. and European countries.”

“The Last Inhabitant” won Best Feature at the Scandinavian International Film Festival Film in late October. Actor Aleksandr Khachatryan also won the Best Actor award. The film also received an honorable mention at the Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto.

The film, which was written by Tsovinar Khachatryan and Masis Baghdasaryan, focuses on Abgar, who stays behind in his village in Artsakh as the war forces most of the village residents to flee.

“Evicted as a result of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, Abgar stays behind alone in a gradually shrinking enemy ring. He is waiting for his daughter, who has become a witness to her husband’s murder by an angry mob and was hospitalized with a trauma disorder. An Azerbaijani named Ibrahim, for finding and bringing Abgar’s daughter, suggests that Abgar work on the construction of a mosque. A few days later, Ibrahim finds the girl, named Yurga, in one of the psychiatric hospitals of Baku and brings her to Abgar,” reads the film’s synopsis on its official website.

“As a filmmaker, raised in Nagorno-Karabagh [Artsakh], I have listened to stories of hardships endured by my family and villagers and their struggles in dealing with such a devastating inter-ethnic conflict,” Avetisyan said in a statement about the film. “[“The Last Inhabitant”] is about people who have appeared in hell after they have lost their paradise—people who are saved by love, virtue, and self-sacrifice.”