The number of 1489 refers to “body of an individual missing in action.” It is also the number assigned to numerous Armenians who are nowhere to be found after the wars with Azerbaijan. When a longstanding territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan flared up again in September 2020, a 21-year-old student and musician named Soghomon Vardanyan was thrust into battle. Seven days into the war he went missing… Using her phone camera, his sister Shoghakat decides to film her and her parents' search and their emotional process, in an effort that netted her the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary, along with the FIPRESCI Award in the same festival.
1489 is screening at Museum of the Moving Image, as part of the First Look 2024 program
The intimacy of the documentary is quite evident from the initial scenes, as the film resembles a home video of a daughter recording her father's everyday life. And while everything seems normal on the surface, a phone call by Shoghakat to the army service responsible for people missing highlights the family's agony for the fate of Soghomon, whom they had no news about for some time. The news from the television shows the progress of the war as much as the political “battle”, which is raging on in equal density.
Not being able to contain their agony, father and daughter move to the village of Karahunj, where Soghomon's unit is placed, in order to seek more information. The maps the father drew from the information he got, back in his house, become more detailed with the help of the military, but the family's questions remain unanswered. In a desperate effort to pay homage, or look like her brother, Shoghakat shaves her head. Finally, the news arrives.
Shoghakat Vardanyan directs a very personal film that focuses on a heartbreaking event for her family that actually mirrors families whose members are involved in war all over the world. That her parents, and particularly her father, essentially ignore the camera, which seems to have no impact on them, is a feat that should definitely be attributed to the director, but also the overall mentality of the couple. As agony permeates the movie, the misery that the war has brought in Armenia becomes quite evident, with every setting essentially looking rundown.
The inclusion of an older home video in the documentary finally shows who the brother was, essentially making the whole approach even more empathetic, in a testament to the quality of Tigran Baghinyan and Armen Papyan's editing. The ending comes as no surprise, but its impact is not diminished in any way, even if the director keeps the presentation of hers and her parents' reaction to a dignified point.
Truth be told, the amateurism of the documentary does become annoying at some times, with the whole thing looking too much like a home video. The permeating intimacy, however, as much as the presentation of a concept that, unfortunately, becomes more and more common, definitely elevate “1489” beyond any kind of technical issues, deeming it a truly impactful film.
