"Taniel" Trailer from Garo Berberian on Vimeo.
TANIEL
Constantinople, April 24 1915. As the British prepared their landings in nearby Gallipoli, hundreds of arrest warrants are issued across the city. The arrival of police at poet Taniel Varoujan’s door would shatter his home, destroy his work and his family would never see him again.
Film Noir in style, “Taniel” pays homage to the era of dramatic filmmaking with extreme lighting and camera angles. The narrative is mostly heard through poetry, with Varoujan poems in Armenian expressing the emotions in each of the scenes; and narrative poetry in English delivered with an emotive depth of feeling by Sean Bean.
Taniel is currently taking part in the film festival circuit through 2018. It won two awards at the Bermuda International Film Festival and and Best Short Film award at ARPA International Film Festival. The film was also selected by a number of festivals all over the world, including Sydney, Toronto, Bucharest, Washington DC etc, as well as by the Golden Apricot International Film Festival, Shetland’s Screenplay Festival, curated by Mark Kermode; and one of the oldest festivals in Europe in Montecatini. Taniel also had some very special screenings at The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan and at the iconic Lincoln Center in New York.
Interview with Australian SBS Radio
Interview with director Garo Berberian about his short film Taniel (2018) and his travel to Sydney for the screening of the film during the Armenian Film Festival by Vahe Ketab.
Filmmaking Q&A from AFF Sydney with Garo Berberian and Levon Parian
Noric Dilanchian hosted a Q&A session with Garo Berberian and The Crows of the Desert director Levon Parian, after the screening of both films. Listen to the podcast here.
Taniel to travel to Washington
The film will be screened at DC Shorts Film Festival in September
To the source of the light: Taniel travels around the Globe
Jean Vartan Ekmekjian, who recently revived Hayreniqi Dzayn (Voice of the Homeland), Pan Armenian Writers’ Unions’ official newspaper, visited our screening at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. Read his review of the film and its backstory here.
Sydney Armenian Film Festival
Taniel to be screened in Sydney on 19 August!
Summing up our week in Armenia
We had a busy and emotional week in Armenia, screening at Golden Apricot and The Genocide Museum. Read all about it here.
Yeğya Akgün on being the voice of Taniel
Yeğya Akgün on being the voice of Taniel Varoujan reading his poetry for the short film Taniel.
Taniel – The Soundtrack
The film’s director Garo Berberian discusses his rationale in picking the soundtrack, featuring music by Philip Glass, Michael Nyman and Tigran Hamasyan amongst others.
Tigran Gaboyan on playing Varoujan
՛I had to become Varoujan, feel like Varoujan’ – Tigran Gaboyan talks about his experience of playing the poet and expressing his emotions in silence
…Ո՛վ Լալագե |…You, Lalage!
Meet ‘You, Lalage’, one of Varoujan’s most sensual and emotionally charged poems.
A Trail of Ink, a River of Blood.
Read Indelible, a poem by English writer Ben Hodgson, which is used in the film
Meet the Crew: Mariam Dvalishvili, Assistant Director
A Georgian in Armenia: Mariam Dvalishvili recounts the story of returning to Armenia for yet another film – Taniel.