Aram Manukyan

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What gave you the inspiration to write and direct this story?

First of all, I want to thank you for the award, as well as for the interview. As far back as I can remember, I was in love with the world of cinema and always wanted to be a part of it. My film is a unique tribute to my father, the man who raised me, taught me the philosophy of life, with this film I tried to make his work more recognizable all over the world. I wanted to show everyone what I see and feel as a son and as a film director.


I tried to be honest when I writing the script, write thoughts that I wanted to tell my father but did not dare, my father inspired me, I tried to convey this feeling to everyone who will watch this film. The title of the film is not called accidental, “let me” I ask permission from everyone with this film, I ask permission from my father, myself, and you to tell this story. My film is a scream, a fight with myself, to strive for more, that’s why at the beginning of the film I show what I had planned, then by improving I got what the viewer sees.

What were the challenges in shooting this movie?

Undoubtedly, there were difficulties, but I learned not to notice them, to quickly adapt to reality. When I was a student, my teacher Nikola Davtyan taught me and his other students to turn the difficulties they face during filming into an advantage.
Thank God, there were people next to me who worked with me with no less dedication, friendly relations with the cameramen, their dedication played a big role during the filming, because what we did, we did with love, if you do it with love, you don’t even notice the difficulties.

When I was writing the script, I understood very well that throughout the film, instead of my father, my mind or inner voice should speak. To do this, I needed a person with an influential voice. Such a person was Babken Chobanyan, I took his voice into account when writing the script. Babken has the title of Honored Artist of Armenia, he is a very talented actor, whose actions can only be admired, I met him and showed him the script, he read and agreed to be a part of my film. As an Honored Artist, he provided tremendous support to the first-time filmmaker, and read the text free of charge. So I am very grateful to him, I am proud to have had the opportunity to know him personally, to work with such an artist.

What, in your opinion, is the most important quality of a Film Director/actor/actress?

In my opinion, sincerity, devotion, you must love what you do, you must be in love with the art of filmmaking, the director’s profession is the most unlimited in my opinion, the director has the opportunity to show the world the mental state inside him, the director must give the viewer a bunch of emotions through the film, he should be able to interpret the thoughts into a shot, The director must understand what art is, in order to reflect it through the prism of the film, he must create emotions and distribute them in the same way for different viewers with different tastes and perceptions.

The director must be a walking encyclopedia, have unlimited imagination, he just must be able to work tirelessly…

What films have been the most inspiring or influential to you and why?

I was more inspired by specific directors and their works, these films made me love the world of cinema, for example, Reservoir Dogs Pulp fiction Inglourious Basterds The Hateful Eight directed by Quentin Tarantino, The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou directed by Wes Anderson, Seven Samurai, Scandal, The Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro directed by Akira Kurosawa, The Pomegranate Color, of my compatriot Sergey Parajanov, Of the documentaries, Ron Fricke’s 2011 film Samsara impressed me most. I dreamed that one day I would be considered as their colleague.

Are you working on a new project at the moment or are you planning to? Is there anybody you’d like to thank?

At the moment I have already written the script of my new film, I am already working on the storyboard, the film is focused on human indifference and a hero with a hearing problem.
Nature has deprived the hero of the opportunity to listen, but instead, he is endowed with the ability to feel, to see, he feels even what is not visible to the human eye, he is able to suppress his own desires by putting all the distorted feelings on the altar in advance. The film is about hope, love, and faith. With this film, I want to take an even greater step into the world of cinema, to prove that you can make a film if you have a great desire, even for a small amount, I hope everything will work out.

I would like to thank my father Georgi Manukyan, my brother Vahein Manukyan, my wife Srbuhi Sargsyan, Babken Chobanyan, Nikolay Davtyan, Petros Hoktanyan, Garik Khachatryan, Davit Banuchyan և everyone who worked on my film and helped me.