The Russians Have Gone

The Armenian nation suffered two great catastrophes in the last century. In the First World War it was the genocide carried out by the Turks; in 1988 it was a devastating earthquake. After Armenia was able to finally achieve independence, over a million people left the country. Gravedigger Garnik, stonecutter Arut, orthodox priest Tatul and little Varuzh, however do not intend to leave their homes. They spend their days in the giant cemetery in the town of Giumri, which had been almost completely destroyed by the earthquake. In scenes of lyrical images, renowned documentary filmmaker Alexander Gutman effectively explores the borders between a town that is both and alive and dead and between childhood and adulthood. The combination of black and white, color, and yellow-black footage intensifies this gradually emerging insight into the Armenian soul.
This puzzling film has the feel of a Beckett play. Weary-looking men hang around a desolate place wearing shapeless dressing gowns, women hang their laundry to dry on barbed wires... A cold landscape of rocks, ice, and the ruins of a long-forgotten industrial age surround these people who seem trapped between life and death in a wasteland. (official distributor synopsis)