Though American in tone, the plot mechanics of this nominally Armenian feature scan Eastern European to a fault. Tragedy is played for laughs, at least at first, while the characters are shamelessly played as broad stereotypes that reinforce the black comic mode. The hero is a classic schlub, and, in fact, is nicknamed Charlie Chaplin by his tormentors as more than just an insult. His name actually is Charlie, and as played by Armenian-American writer-director Michael Goorjian, he’s preternatually naive. It’s 1948, and Stalin has invited all Armenians who escaped the World War I Turkish-led genocide to repatriate in what is now Soviet territory. Charlie, an orphan who was smuggled out of Armenia as a little boy and made it to the U.S., has recently lost his wife and takes Stalin up on his offer, expecting to reclaim his heritage. He arrives with only a smattering of the language and, in the train station, helps a woman retrieve her son who has gotten lost in a crowd of people. The woman happens to be the Armenian wife of a local Russian official, and she asks her husband to help Charlie get a job. Instead, the husband, miffed by this stranger’s grating American attitude, no matter how benign the intent, has him arrested and thrown in prison.

Fooled into signing a confession he can’t read, Charlie is sentenced to hard labor in Siberia but, due to damage caused by a fortuitous earthquake, all prisoners set for transfer are kept on site to repair the walls. Charlie settles into a daily grind of backbreaking work and occasional beatings meted out just for the hell of it. To pass the time, he sits at the window of his cell and spies on the neighbors, a young couple the husband of which is one of the tower guards at the prison and who has a knack for painting that his wife doesn’t seem to appreciate. It’s like a kinder version of Rear Window: Over months and even years, Charlie’s fascination with this couple turns into an obsession, as he loses himself in the drama of their everyday existence, even if he has to make up his own dialogue. The script is just clever enough to paper over the more obvious plot holes and contradictions, and Goorjian knows how to modulate the emotional temperature to keep the viewer interested, but if you’ve seen any Eastern European tragicomedies of this ilk you can predict not only where the story is going, but how it will get there, and the last half hour, while compelling, feels often like a retread of something that was probably better. 

The film is saved by its skillful editing and the supporting Armenian and Russian cast, whose caricatures turn out to be deeper than what first impressions might imply, especially in the way they differentiate between the two national outlooks. The old guy who constantly lectures Charlie on the greatness of Armenian culture is a running joke that never flags. 

In Armenian, Russian and English. Opens June 13 in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Chanter Hibiya (050-6868-5001), Kino Cinema Shinjuku (03-5315-0978).

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photo (c) 2023 People of AR Productions and The New Armenian LLC