Sayat Nova

The film is, of course, filled with surreal and fantastical imagery. Clearly brimming with spiritual and cultural meaning and the film takes us through the life of the poet. The films music and sound also adds to this almost dreamlike atmosphere. You let the words and sounds wash over you whilst the images play out in front of you. However, even the most beautiful images lose their magic when viewed through glazed eyes.

Unfortunately there is no getting away from it, this film is hard to maintain concentration with. Now this is through design. It isn't intended as a biopic of the poets life, but more as an abstract biopic of the poets work. Every image on screen is great, usually vibrant and surreal. The issue is that as there isn't really a plot/story, there's nothing to keep you engaged, so you end up just looking at a series of images. Again, whilst all are fantastic, they lose their magic quickly and they aren't in service to anything, aside from the allegorical/metaphorical/symbolic meaning (although lots of the symbolic meaning isn't very difficult to grasp).

So whilst visually beautiful and defiantly unique, if you don't have patience or require some form of story you may be better off watching Jodorowsky films instead.

PS This is only my first viewing, so my opinion may change if I see it again. Issue is that it was too dull to warrant a second viewing, although short.