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still Komitas (Don Askarian, DE 1988)

Komitas

Don Askarian / DE, 1988 / 92 min.

Don Askarian’s cinematic elegy for Armenian monk and composer Komitas (1869–1935) and the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide (1915–1923).

poster Komitas (Don Askarian, DE 1988)
Time unfolds not linearly but as a series of fragments. Flickers of church domes, cracked hands gliding over ancient instruments, and the solitary figure of Komitas himself, suspended between worlds. These moments, at once sacred and abandoned, form a quiet meditation on identity, exile, and the persistent sorrow of cultural erasure. The landscape is no mere backdrop, but a living presence: severe mountains, crumbling stones, empty fields heavy with absence. Within these spaces, Komitas’ soul drifts, carrying melodies both remembered and lost. His music becomes a form of testimony, his silence a form of grief.

With a background in literature and philosophy, Askarian shapes Komitas into a cinematic elegy. The film offers no narrative clarity, but embraces abstraction, true to how trauma and memory truly unfold. Like the sacred songs Komitas once collected, the film preserves something fragile and essential: a truth carried not by facts, but by feelings.

Lost in time, unearthed from the archive, and breathed back to life: Komitas pulses with memory, beauty and sorrow.

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Details

Not (yet) rated

Director

Don Askarian

Production year

1988

Country

DE

Original title

Komitas

Length

92 min.

Language

German, Armenian

Subtitles

ENG

Format

DCP

Part of

Eye Classics

Eye’s collection includes a wealth of classics. With the Eye Classics series, Eye brings film history even closer. Every week, we screen at least three classics from the collection under one recognisable name: Eye Classics.

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still Komitas (Don Askarian, DE 1988)
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