The Land of Nairi/Երկիր Նաիրի
The Land of Nairi/Երկիր Նաիրի
Armenian SSR, 1930, 60’
silent film
Director and Scriptwriter: Hamo Beknazaryan
Cinematographer: Garush Beknazaryan
Production Company: Hayfilm Studio
This film, combining actual documentary and staged footage, is dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the establishment of Soviet rule in Armenia and shows the difficulties and obstacles that the young country had to overcome on its way to a better tomorrow.
Hamo Beknazaryan
Born on May 31, 1892, in Yerevan. In 1912, got admitted to the Moscow University Faculty of Law. In 1913, he transferred to the Moscow Commercial Institute, where he graduated in 1918. In 1914, he began appearing in movies and shortly after became a popular actor of pre-revolutionary Russian cinema. In 1921, along with Georgi Gogetidze Beknazaryan founded the Film Department adjacent to the Georgian People’s Commissariat of Enlightenment. In 1923, the Film Department was reformed and became Georgia’s State Film Production Company. Beknazaryan was its first chairman and artistic director. The same year he made his film debut with Patricide. Later he made two more films in Georgia – The Lost Treasure (1924) and Natella (1925). In 1925, the Committee of People’s Commissars of Armenia invited Beknazaryan to make the first Armenian feature film Namus. In 1926, Beknazaryan moved to Yerevan and continued to be the artistic director of the “Armenfilm” studio up until 1951. In 1926, Beknazaryan made the very first film in history about the Yazidi people called Zare. The same year he also wrote and directed the first Armenian comedy Shor and Shorshor. In 1935, Beknazaryan directed the first Armenian sound film Pepo (with music by Aram Khachaturyan).
In 1927 at Beknazaryan’s initiative, a studio called “Vostokfilm” (East film) was founded in Moscow, which was specifically created to produce films about the smaller nations of the USSR. In 1930-1931 Beknazaryan made two films for the studio about the life of the Nanai people – the feature film Igdembu and the documentary The Land of Golds. He also made the feature film The Man with the Medal about the everyday life of the Chechen people. The depiction of life and culture of various (especially smaller) nations is quite typical for Beknazaryan.
Hamo Beknazaryan died on April 27, 1965 in Moscow. In many respects, Hamo Beknazaryan’s body of work predetermined the evolution of Armenian cinema, its artistic qualities, and distinct features.