When the Hawk Comes
By Lilia Li-Mi-Yan and Katherina Sadovsky
A short video by artists Lilia Li-Mi-Yan and Katherina Sadovsky is a sad, poetic metaphor for what is happening in the world today.
The plot and melody of an Armenian lullaby are taken as a starting point, where a mother tries to calm her son by offering to make a symbolic choice of a destiny bird.
The boy does not choose peaceful birds, nightingale, or magpie. His predictable choice is a warlike hawk.
The horrors of war are resolutely put out of the brackets of this world without men. It is a gynaeceum, majestic, beautiful and frightening.
Nineteen women of different ages wander in a string through the endless desert, re-mastering or forever saying goodbye to the space reminiscent of the fields of past battles.
At times, the space collapses into a dark cave, a cramped stage area or a place for prayer. At these moments, the movement of women looks like a mysterious ritual. It seems necessary and meaningful.
Under the alarmingly changing sound of the lullaby, the stones hang in the air, the predatory hawk turns into a drone and the expectation of catharsis increases. The audience, indeed, is brought close to him, and twice.
At first, space explodes with a cataclysm, suggesting the fateful presence of higher forces, and later, the glow of sunset is too similar to a fatal explosion of human origin.
It becomes clear that in this story, there is not only a happy end, but there is no end – it is looped, as it should be at video screenings. Here, this usual technique takes on a new meaning and significance.
The story begins from the beginning, and the viewer returns to the pile of female bodies that wake up from sleep or get up after death.
Folklore motifs of a lullaby are filled with actual meanings, meditativeness – hidden despair.
Team Credits
Directors: Lilia Li-Mi-Yan & Katherina Sadovsky
Artists: Lilia Li-Mi-Yan, Katherina Sadovsky | Editors: Lilia Li-Mi-Yan Katherina Sadovsky | Color grading: Vladimir Mogilevskiy | Computer graphics: Vladimir Mogilevskiy |
Post-productionsupervisor: Vahan Hovhannisyan | Composers: Ekaterina Steppe, Tatiana Stepanova | Singers: Tatiana Stepanova, Ekaterina Steppe |
Sound design: Ekaterina Steppe
Cast: Mariam Hovhannisyan, Yana Grigoryan, Toma Aydinyan, Lusine Davtyan, Zhanna Velitsyan Armine Haratunyan, Mariam Karapetyan, Nune Apresyan, Roza Gabrielyan, Syuzanna Arzumanyan Christina Danoyan, Milena Hovhannisyan, Marina Soloyan, Maria Hovsepyan, Anush Hakobyan, Anahit Manukyan, Mariam Meliqyan, Maria Matevosyan, Anna Madatyan
Choreographer: Toma Aydinyan | Dancers: Toma Aydinyan, Yana Grigoryan, Lusine Davtyan, Milena Hovhannisyan,
Anahit Manukyan, Anush Hakobyan
DOP: Artur Gharayan | Film crew manager: Grigor Oganesyan | Camera Operators: Mkrtitch Khachatryan, Tigran Adjemyan | Focus pullers: Gevorg Gharayan, Zareh Saharyan | Light master: Minas Azatyan | Lighting technicians: Arman Kldjyan, Aram Karapetyan | Dolly: Robert Patrin, Artur Papoyan | Runners: Jirayr Torgomyan, Edgar Yeremyan, Yulia Potapova, Dima Gugin | Head Producer: Lilia Li-Mi-Yan | Creative producer: Katherina Sadovsky
Curator: Mila Bredihina | Film promotion manager: Sofia Kuznetsova
Supported by: AG, Araksya Mysheghyan
Thanks: Artur Amirhanyan