December 2019. Life is returning to normal in the Armenian community of Talish in Nagorno-Karabakh. Families have moved into the new houses that stand alongside the ruins of the last Azeri attack in 2016. A playground for two friends, Samvel and Avo, when they're not at school. Karen, the lumberjack and veteran, reminisces about his hunting exploits and past confrontations. At the barracks, Erik and his comrades are doing their military service, a few kilometers from the border, in a deceptively calm atmosphere. The climate is cheerful, despite the looming threat of a new war.

September 2020. A surprise large-scale attack by Azerbaijan once again tips the region into chaos. Talish is bombed and invaded. The men go to the front. Samvel and Avo's families find refuge in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. They have to come to terms with a new life of exile in this big, unfamiliar city. Karen flees and wanders the streets of Stepanakert, the capital of Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh. Erik is wounded, with one leg amputated, and begins a long road of convalescence.

Alexis Pazoumian delicately captures the trajectory of 3 generations of men whose lives and identities are shaped by this endless sacrificial war. Each in their own way, Samvel and Avo, Erik and Karen, deal with this bellicose heritage, with the physical and psychological scars of war, while dreaming of a peaceful future. Over a period of 3 years, he filmed the epilogue to the so-called black garden, a land where war waits for no one.

Dir. Alexis Pazoumian | 80min | 2024 | France, Belgium

"Shot over the course of three eventful years, which culminated in the surrender of Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist government in 2023, Alexis Pazoumian’s haunting documentary harnesses the collective turmoil that dominated generations of Armenians" - Guardian

"Pazoumian creates gorgeous images as a filmmaker. However his camera conveys more than just the results of war. The audience sees buildings ruined and abandoned, but what’s conjured is also the past when they stood tall and were homes full of life and laughter" - Variety

"Pazoumian has ended up making a unique historical document, filled with beautifully composed imagery put into a complex framework" - International Cinephile Society

"With cinematic brushstrokes and few words, a bleak story is told of three generations living in the shadow of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. A brilliantly orchestrated study in how conflicts recreate themselves" - CPH:DOX