Armenia, 2022-2023
EN / The Color of the Pomegranate is a documentary work haunted by a single question: Is there a tomorrow beyond tomorrow? A journey guided by the hesitant gaze of a youth born amid the rubble of Armenia, heir to a history whose complexity and violence continue to resonate today. At the heart of this very real dream, where to look: the West, the East, Russia? In the solitude of a landlocked island, amidst its fragmented landscapes and separated people, where should one sail? On a more personal level, it is also an unconscious awakening of a sense of belonging to this culture of which, despite my name, I knew almost nothing. A few childhood memories—a mixture of smells, glances, faces—and then dates and places: Anatolia, Cilicia, the Armenian neighborhoods of Bursa, 1915, 1917, Lebanon, Marseille, and Valence. Behind each of these words lie stories and accounts. Told by my great-grandparents, they were sometimes tinged with fiction. In this faltering memory, I forged a new path along Armenia’s borders—with Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan, and Georgia. Caught in this off-screen realm of the imagination, I approached my own, on the other side of the walls, seeking solace.