Vodka Lemon - DaaVeeDee

Vodka Lemon (DVD) (*)

~~$20.99~~ $14.97

Screened, competed or awarded at:
Venice Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Armenian ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
86 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Making Of
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 2003 and produced in:
Armenia ( Russia, Eastern Europe )
France ( France, Benelux )
Italy ( Italy, Greece )
Switzerland ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Hiner Saleem

Written By:
Hiner Saleem
Lei Dinety
Pauline Gouzenne

Actors:
Romen Avinian ..... Hamo
Lala Sarkissian ..... Nina
Ivan Franek ..... Dilovan
Ruzan Mesropyan ..... Zine
Zahal Karielachvili ..... Giano
Armen Marutyan
Astrik Avaguian
Hasmik Alexanian
Hayk Avaguian
Svetlana Babelyan
Edouard Bagdassarov
Gourguen Basmadjian
Aramo Guervorguian
Lilit Karaétian
Levon Meloyan
Témour Mhoyan
Roudik Revondyan
Hiner Saleem
Armen Sarkissian
Gaguik Sarkissian
Vahagn-Poncho Simonian
Hasmik Ter-Karapetian

Synopsis:

"Vodka Lemon" just might be the world's iciest postcard film: you will never be so happy to sit inside a cozy, theater as when you watch the actors exhaling clouds of warm breath over the blindingly white expanse. But the thicket of relationships that the director, Hiner Saleem, has created and weaves his cast and camera through is so invitingly hotblooded and crowded with hilariously melodramatic incident that the snowbanks are not nearly as forbidding as they initially seem. The picture starts with an old man being pulled across the snowy wastes on his bed, an image right out of a dream. But Mr. Saleem's gifts come from giving these outlandish visual statements a grounding in the everyday reality that the characters experience. "Vodka Lemon" charts the intermingling - marriages, death and sexual complications - in an Armenian village. Chief among the citizens is the wily Hamo, played by Romik Avinian. Hamo has begun a flirtation with a much younger woman, the 50-ish widow Nina (Lala Sarkissian). She feels a void in her life, and he simply recognizes now as the time for both of them to move into a new adventure. Mr. Saleem understands that need is the central motivating force in the villagers' lives: for heat, food, emotional humidity and clarity. Mr. Saleem's layering does compensate for the lack of formal structure. But the picture does not need an elaborately contrived plot. What it has instead is a neighborly, fresh-air quality; all the doors in the miniature snow-globe of a town are open, as is the chatter and curiosity about everyone's familial intrigues. "Vodka Lemon" could be an Ice Capades version of a Beckett play, with a group of seasoned though modest hammy actors in complete control. Their affectlessness gives the movie an atmosphere of hypothermia-laced surrealism, with shots of drama serving the same purpose as the vodka; both keep the blood flowing. This movie has an antic, mordant visual poetry that matches up with the rancor and feeling in its population's souls.

In a remote, isolated village in post-Soviet Armenia, Hamo, a widower with a pitiful pension and three worthless sons, travels daily to his wife's grave. There he meets the lovely Nina, who is communing with her late husband. The two are penniless--she works in a local bar that is about to close down, while he has been forced to start selling his meager possessions. All seems hopelessly bleak, yet as Hamo begins to court Nina, their unexpected union revitalizes them.

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 10 September, 2006.

Customers who bought this product also purchased

An Actor's Revenge (DVD)

Love, The Magician (DVD)