What are the possible damages Hovhannes Galstyan's film project "My Grandma's Locks" can face: The bulgarian co-producer speaks up

The producers of Armenian, German and Bulgarian film project "My Grandma's Locks"

The producers of Armenian, Bulgarian and German film project "My Grandma's Locks" are determined to solve the film's issues together. 

The co-director and co-producer of the film and owner of Parallels Film Production and CINEMA (Center of INdustry Education and Motion Arts) Hovhannes Galstyan has spoken up about the main burdens for the realization of the film in our interview: the 7 million AMD taken from The Ministry of Culture in 2017, the continuing delay of the contest for state financial support in 2018 and the fact that the Minister of Culture didn't answer to the letters of the film's German and Bulgarian producers regarding the clarification of these issues. This situation puts the process of investment from the international co-producers in danger and may cause the cancellation of co-production Agreements. 

Days after this interview the ex-Minister of Culture Armen Amiryan to whom were Mr. Galstyan's main accusations directed, has spoken up with an answering statement on Facebook.

As the problem continues to remain unsolved 168.am decided to speak about the situation to Vasiliy Sharkevich - the Bulgarian co-producer of Armenian, Bulgarian and German film project "My Grandma's Locks".

-Mr. Sharkevich how did the co-production between you and the co-producer and co-director of "My Grandma's Locks" Hovhannes Galstyan begin?

-Thank you for your interest and attention towards our project "My Grandma's Locks". We knew Hovhannes Galstyan for a while now and work together in other projects too. But when we learned that the script is based on a true story the wish of making the film came immediately.

-What's the most attractive part of the project "My Grandma's Locks"?

-The film's most attractive part is the message. The situations that the audience will be able to experience with the main characters, to share their emotions, fates and the reality of the ancient times will help everyone to make the world more tolerant, kind and a better place nowadays. This story shows the culture, living and difficulties of Armenians at the beginning of the 20th century and the inner emotions of each person perfectly. Although more or less tragic stories like this used to happen in the 20th century not everyone knows about them. But it's important to remember, respect the story of our ancestors and analyze the mistakes of the past. But everyone seems to forget about that, that's why these problems remain modern even nowadays. There can be no good future without the good analyze of the past.

We think that the film will have a huge success for the audience who have thought about their ancestors at least for once and will awaken a wish to know more about their ancestors for those who weren't interested in the past. 

-What actions are already planned regarding the film?          

-Most of the things that were planned from our side are already done, but the shootings are being postponed due to the known events and situations, although they were planned for this summer. This seriously harms the project as a big number of people is involved: the entire crew and the cast are ready for the shootings. Now they have to reschedule their plans, which is a threat for their careers. We can miss the right age of the young actors, right weather and the main cast because of their agreements and involvements in other film projects and plays and the whole crew due to the continuing delay of the shootings. This is why we need to stick with the plan and shoot the film this year so that we can show it in May 2019. Every single postponed day technically delays the start of the shootings for weeks and the premiere for months. 

The unsolved financial problems from Armenia are the reason other financial institutions have trust issues regarding the fulfillment of the project and we worked really hard to gain that trust. Besides, the financial delay impacts negatively on the preliminary agreements with the distributors in different countries. 

-Can the co-production fail, if the Ministry of Culture of Armenia will not return the 7 million AMD mentioned earlier by Hovhannes Galstyan?

-The co-production between us and Hovhannes Galstyan is based on friendship and understanding. We consider this project as ours as well. We're worried about it and believe in its success and of course we keep doing everything for its fast realization. But we still want it to be an Armenian film so we need the main financial support to be from Armenia. Otherwise we would have already started the shootings since we had already received suggestions that needed the changes in the story and replacement of the locations. 

-How long are you eager to wait and keep the co-production?

-We think we've already answered this question indirectly. I will answer anyways and say that the most valuable thing in film-making is time. Film-making is a very laborious, creative and technical process. And the producer's job is to combine all the mentioned and make a movie from all of the ideas, thoughts, technical possibilities and human resources, which must be valued by people of different generations. There must be love, loyalty, courage and fearlessness to create something good and kind. So we will overcome all of the difficulties together, side by side because unity is power. We must remember that. 

Ani Gabuzyan