Written, produced and directed by Vic Gerami, “Motherland” has been an ‘Official Selection' in 63 film festivals, has won 38 awards, was shortlisted for Film Independent's ‘Spirit Awards,' and is Oscar-qualified and available in The Academy's ‘Screening Room' for its members for the Oscars race.
“Motherland” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
Gerami deals with the attack against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Armenians in 2020 by Turkish and Azerbaijani forces that resulted in the death of 5,000 Armemians, but also highlights the historical as much the contemporary context that led to this attack. To achieve this, Geramin traveled a number of times between the US and Armenia in order to conduct interviews with various individuals, from 7 members of Congress and Baroness Caroline Cox, Life Peer Member of the British House of Lords, to experts on the subject, to a number of the victims of the attack.
In that fashion, and through a pace that can be described as frantic, as the succession of interviews, historical and 2020 footage, photos of the area and a number of other elements, is non-stop, Gerami succeeds in presenting what is happening in all detail. Starting with the 1915-1917 Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Turks, the documentary then moves to the creation of the Azerbaijan by Stalin, and the implementation of the country as a tool of both Russians and Turks, with the ending goal being for Turkey to reach the borders of Kazakhstan, on the expense of Armenia, which lies just in the middle.
Furthemore, Gerami highlights how slush funds essentially financed by oil money have been used to affect particular lobbies in the EU and US in favor of the Azerbaijan-Turkey coalition, with Trump's role in the whole concept being integral, and the fact that EU receives fossil fuel from the former of equal significance. At the same time, the way the same fund has been implemented to affect the press which ignores the real events and promotes the two countries, is also excessively portrayed here, essentially revealing an international conspiracy of epic proportions. The testimonies of victims of the 2020 war conclude the presentation of the events here, cementing the overall impressive research Geramin had conducted.
On the other hand, there are a couple of issues here that slightly tone down the quality of the film. First of all, Gerami frequently makes the film about himself, particularly in the beginning but also throughout the documentary, with him also appearing on the screen numerous times, in a tactic that distracts from the main theme. Furthermore, these parts extend the duration of the movie to almost two hours, making it somewhat difficult to focus on after a point. Secondly, the approach here is quite polemic, which is something acceptable considering the events, but the lack of almost any kind of representation of the other side, makes the whole title utterly one-sided. Lastly, the insistence of Gerami to call the 2020 events a genocide goes too far after a point, with the word seeming to be included in every other sentence.
These issues, however, are more annoying than real faults, and “Motherland” emerges as a well-researched, well-shot and edited documentary that manages to inform its audience about a largely unknown issue in the best fashion.