As a Beginning (2008)

Misha, their financially-strapped director (played by the great comic Sergey Danielian in the lead role), is grappling with midlife crisis on the one hand, and the tricky business of maintaining dignity and integrity on the other. During a tea house meeting with Artash (Arthur Manukyan), an old friend who lives abroad, Misha complains about the daily struggle to scrape by. To which Artash replies, "You guys don't see beyond your noses." What Misha does see is that his live-in girlfriend, Lisa (Lili Aramyan) is drifting away, into the arms of Artash. He also realizes, perhaps more clearly than ever, that it's okay to lose himself in the parallel universe of his work. Sevada goes on to interlace the story of the staging of a pantomime play with the unraveling of domestic contentment, the narrative of a young peasant mother's death in 1936, and the black-and-white video footage of her son, now an old man, describing her passing. Set to a score of haunting evocations by Keith Jarrett and drum-driven crescendos by Tigran Saakian, "As a Beginning" is a lyrical tribute to the intersection of loss and salvation. The film glistens with memorable performances by Sergey Danielian, the statuesque Yury Kostanian (in his roles as a leading pantomime and a priest), and, last but certainly not least, the ebullient cast of young pantomimes whose aching beauty seems to scream, "The show must go on."