1489

1489
Shoghakat Vardanyan, Armenia, 2023, 76′

Shot on a smartphone, this is a poignant personal documentary about the process – emotional and otherwise – of searching for a brother who went missing in the war.
When soldiers are killed, they often end up as anonymous numbers in news reports. But behind every number there is a person who leaves behind heartbroken family members. The title 1489 refers to the anonymous number of a “body of an individual missing in action.” It was the number assigned to Soghomon Vardanyan, a 21-year-old student and musician who was close to completing his mandatory military service when the conflict between Azerbaijan and his home country Armenia over Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) flared up again in September 2020.

On the seventh day of the war, Soghomon goes missing. Using her phone camera, his sister Shoghakat decides to film her and her parents’ search and their emotional process. After six months, bones are found, but DNA research is needed to show whether the remains are actually those of Soghomon, and the family will have to wait a year and a half for the results. 

All the while, Shoghakat continues to film, even in the most intimate and vulnerable moments and makes the intense sadness and loss of a human being of flesh and blood all the more tangible. 

Best film prize at IDFA 2024.

Selected by young programmers in collaboration with the Trieste International Film Festival.

Shoghakat Vardanyan will join us after the screening for a Q&A.