Vahram Martirosyan’s novel entitled “Landslide”, published in 2000, has turned into a film scenario and is currently in the process of being filmed for the big screens. The film director Michael Dovlatyan is also the co-author of the scenario.
“Landslide” formed part of the film budget plan of “HayFilm” studio last year, but filming hasn’t begun yet.
“We must have a maximum budget because we don’t really have enough,” says author of “Landslide”. He still has casting, natural background and calculations to think about. The film must be an Armenian-Russian-French production and each side has to make investments. The investments are going to be both financial and professional.
“We hope to get special effects in France because the novel’s context gives us the opportunity to add special effects. Russia is going to provide financial aid, as well as actors and cameramen,” says M. Dovlatyan. Despite his recent attack in Moscow, Dovlatyan makes frequent trips to Moscow to hold talks with the Cinema department, which is supposed to provide financial aid for filming. Dovlatyan says the following about the delay in starting film production.
“You need time to produce a film. I hope the director will have enough patience.”
They will start choosing the actors after confirming the final budget. Most of the filming will take place in Armenia.
“The director and I are walking the streets like crazy trying to find sites to film scenes,” says V. Martirosyan.
“Landslide” doesn’t have a national background and the plot develops in different sites. Abstract people live in an abstract city that’s land sliding. The people are already used to the slide-they may sleep on the third floor at night and find themselves on the first floor in the morning because the two floors of their apartment have gone underground. People, buildings, editorial offices and restaurants are all land sliding. But people continue their lives. Although people don’t know what the future holds for them, they get used to the land slide just like we Armenians had gotten used to the dark, cold years of the 90’s. The film doesn’t really place much emphasis on the protagonists being Armenian or the fact that they live in Yerevan; that’s just hinted.
“I haven’t included any special national background in the novel,” says V. Martirosyan. But each Armenian reader may draw comparisons between each situation in “Landslide” and the not too distant past of Armenia. However, those scenes may be looked at differently by foreign viewers-there are underground worlds in everyone’s subconscious mind. The landslide and changing reality leaves no hope that there’s actually something that will stay the same in the city besides, of course, the dream of leaving the city to save oneself from the sliding city and actually learning to slide. The author says that he has tried his best to make the film “anti-legendary”.
The hero
As a reader, you try to find the hero of our times and understand him in “Landslide”. The rebellious lifestyle and the desire to save the world no longer cause interest. The hero/savior character’s reputation slowly yet surely goes down and fades away from foreign literature and cinema. What you get is people living in a century where there are heroes out of nowhere or people that look at heroism as a joke. People don’t have many desires or expectations and as a result, they are not capable of many things. Franz Kafka was the first writer of the 20th century who foresaw a similar human change. His heroes decreased in size and became insects, or were pressed so much that they couldn’t get out of the passages. As for Vahram Martirosyan’s hero, it doesn’t matter whether the person is on the ground or under, he will overcome all the obstacles. As a matter of fact, his hero doesn’t have a name, or a hobby. He is a new kind of hero, which has a great potential of adapting to changes and we can even consider him as an anti-protagonist. However, the author prefers to stay away from pathetic comments and says:
“We all complain about the current reality. My hero keeps it all inside. There are times when you like him and relive some moments with him, but there are no pathetic scenes in “Landslide” and there are no moral lashes.”
According to M. Dovlatyan, the hero in the film “Landslide” is not a hero that goes from here to there, but rather “one who has an obsession for stereotypes”. “The mentality of stereotypes can be seen everywhere, starting from clothes, house remodeling all the way to the workplace”.
There are two options for the protagonist-Russian actor Maxim Mukhanov and French Armenian actor Serge Avetikya. It’s quite possible that the female character will be played by a Russian actress and the protagonist will find himself with her in the underworld. Since there are so many extras in the novel, it is expected to gather a bunch of actors.
“Who can I name? There will be many actors, Karen Janibekyan, Aramo to name a few,” says M. Dovlatyan. Well-known Russian actor Sergey Yurski wishes to play a role in the film. He loves the novel “Landslide” and he personally called V. Martirosyan and asked to meet him.
The realistic and grotesque novel may just become the film which will help Armenian cinema achieve great heights if, of course, the preliminary stage ends well and the novel’s literary language transfers to the appropriate language for the movie.