Reflections on Varoujan’s birthday

Reflections on Varoujan’s birthday

Reflections on Varoujan’s birthday It seems quite amazing that one year ago today we were standing in Istanbul reciting a poem by Taniel Varoujan on his birthday with our lovely friends and talented actors Yegya and Lara. It was a poignant and sad, having...
Poems from the Edge of  Extinction

Poems from the Edge of Extinction

Poems from the Edge of Extinction I was driving, when the National Poetry Librarian Chris McCabe called me. ‘Tatevik’, he said ‘any chance you have some time to talk about Taniel Varoujan’s poetry?’ ‘How much time have you got?’, I said. (If you know me, you also know...
Taniel and I

Taniel and I

Taniel and I Reading Varoujan has always been a physical sensation for me – dizzying, dazzling, taking your breath away. His words, his perfect lines, his poems, condensed with emotion have always affected me since I was 12 and had to learn his ‘Ripened Field’ by...
Finding the Voice of Taniel – Yeğya Akgün

Finding the Voice of Taniel – Yeğya Akgün

Director – Garo Berberian Unable to film in Turkey, our locations and cast came from the Armenian town of Gyumri. Our lead actor, Tigran Gaboyan, one of Armenia’s top theatre stars, was asked to perform without speaking because I wanted Taniel Varoujan’s words...
Sean Bean

Sean Bean

Sean Bean Garo Berberian – Director Sitting in my dad’s kitchen, drinking tea, the conversation of actor Sean Bean came up. As a British Director, it was really important for me to have an English voice for “Taniel” but it was not just an emotional decision: in...
“Taniel” – a film with two voices

“Taniel” – a film with two voices

We have two strands of voice in “Taniel”: original Varoujan poetry read in Armenian, giving us a sense of the poet, his feelings and emotions through his words, and narrative poetry written by Ben Hodgson in English telling the story of the film, the connective glue...