‘My Sweet Land’ Review: Withdrawn From Oscar Consideration, Jordanian Doc Focuses on Kids Raised in Disputed Region
variety.comAlissa Simon Film Critic What is it like to come of age under constant threat of war? Director Sareen Hairabedian’s poignant documentary “My Sweet Land” follows an ethnic Armenian youngster named Vrej Khatchatryan from the small village of Tsaghkashen in the Martakert region of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Conflict, displacement and exile color everything in his and his extended family’s lives. Vrej and his peers are raised in a martial atmosphere, from their lessons at school and military camps, to the games they play, the clothes they wear and the songs they sing.
Artfully combining lyrical images that she shot with news footage, Hairabedian (herself of mixed Armenian-Palestinian-Jordanian heritage) captures an indoctrination that, sadly, seems destined to keep the situation intractable from generation to generation.
With the international news filled with the bloodshed in the Middle East and the Ukraine-Russia conflict, comparatively little time has been spent on what’s happening in the semi-autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, and its unresolved territorial issues.
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