The Lighthouse/Mayak (Maria Saakyan, 2006, Armenia/Russia)

Scottish premiere

72 years after the 1934 release of Nutsa Gogoberidze’s Uzhmuri, the first Caucasus feature directed by a woman, the late Maria Saakyan’s The Lighthouse (Mayak) became the first film shot in Armenia to be directed by an Armenian woman. Set in a picturesque village in the Caucasus mountains, Mayak is Saakyan’s quiet and melancholy reflection on community, memory and loss during war. The protagonist Lena travels from Moscow to her childhood village in order to persuade her grandparents to flee. Escape proves elusive.

Mayak’s slow ruminating narrative foregrounds the sense of our connections to our roots – ‘of a world that remains in the imagination no matter how often one leaves or attempts to leave’, as BFI’s Peter Hames put it. Saakyan is Armenian, and the screenwriter Givi Shavgulidze is a Georgian born in Abhkazia, hinting at the conflicts that inspired the film. Yet, Mayak deliberatly omits specifying the village and the war that threatens it. It is a tender requiem of love for the multicultural Caucasus region, plunged into a seemingly unending cycle of violence by imperial interests.

Cinematically, this film is committed to the great multicultural legacy of Caucasus filmmaking, casting the Georgian actress Sofiko Chiaureli, Sergei Parajanov’s muse who starred in The Colour of Pomegranates, and the Armenian Sos Sargsyan, who was in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris, in their final screen roles. Restored by the Hamo Bek-Nazarov Project, Mayak’s tender, human politics remain more relevant than ever today. Almost exactly one year since Azerbaijan’s months-long blockade and subsequent ethnic cleansing of the Armenian majority in the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, Saakyan’s quietly mesmerising reflection on belonging has not lost its power.

The 2024 edition of Samizdat is supported by Screen Scotland’s National Lottery Film Festival and Screening Fund and Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, awarding funds from Screen Scotland and National Lottery funding from the BFI.

Accessibility

Wheelchair accessible, English subtitles, Pay-what-you-can tickets (£0-£8)

If you want to attend this screening but find it unaffordable, you may be able to have the cost of your ticket, commute, and/or childcare covered by the Audience Access Fund — see here for further details.

Content notes: Themes of war and violence

Access notes: Loud noises