Short film
Seasons of the Year
Տարվա եղանակները
Artavazd Peleshian · 1975
Synopsis
With no commentary or story, the film follows the life of the shepherds of an Armenian mountain through the seasons. A shepherd struggles in the swirl of a torrent, a sheep in his arms; peasants bring haystacks down the slopes, holding them back as much as they follow them; others rush down a snowy slope hugging their animals to them; they mow, they lead the flocks, they celebrate a wedding. The same shots return like refrains.
Context
Shot in black and white, on 35 mm film, by Mikhail Vartanov, in his second and last collaboration with Pelechian, and edited by Aida Galstian, the film is its director's first to do entirely without archive footage. The soundtrack mixes Armenian folk songs with Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Pelechian told Serge Avedikian that it took him eight months to persuade the shepherds to drive their sheep through the most turbulent point of the torrent, and not lower down, where the water is calm.
Who it is for
About half an hour, without dialogue; only three intertitles, and music as the only guide.
Prizes and reception
Screened at the Berlinale in 1990, then at many festivals; Sight and Sound magazine ranked it in 2024 among the fifty greatest documentaries.