ONE, TWO, THREE...

MEK, YERKOU, YEREḲ

By Arman YERITSYAN

ANTIPODE SALES & DISTRIBUTION LLC - as SALES All rights, World

Documentary - Completed 2015

Those who still have so much more life to live.

Festivals
& Awards

Golden Apricot Yerevan IFF 2015
Golden Apricot for the best documentary film
    • Year of production
    • 2015
    • Genres
    • Documentary, Musical, Comedy
    • Countries
    • ARMENIA
    • Languages
    • ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN
    • Budget
    • 0 - 0.3 M$
    • Duration
    • 74 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Arman YERITSYAN
    • Writer(s)
    • Arman YERITSYAN
    • Producer(s)
    • Inna SAHAKYAN (BARS MEDIA FILMS), Yulia GRIGORYANTS (BARS MEDIA FILMS), Fabian GASMIA (BARS MEDIA FILMS)
    • Synopsis
    • In Yerevan, Armenia’s capital city, one woman’s attempt to combat a growing problem of isolated, desperate and helpless elderly people by volunteering, has blossomed into The Chosen Ones—a dance troupe made up of elderly men and women from the local charity soup kitchen. Through her help, these once isolated individuals have found each other, and together, found the strength to rise above their desperate situation. They used to come to the soup kitchen, each alone, for their only hot meal of the day and, when they were done, returned home to their solitude. Now, they leave the soup kitchen together, and walk proudly to the local daycare building to practice their dance recitals. They used to be as ghosts, existing solely in the memories of their old lives, invisible to the society at large. Now, they perform Armenian traditional dances at theatres, festivals, and even on national television!
      This is a story of revival, about a society that has consigned its elderly to a symbolic early death: a burial in the shroud of invisibility for those who still have so much more life to live. One, Two, Three, chronicles their resurrection, their re-emergence before the eyes of Armenian society. Theirs is a micro story of macro proportions, of the will and determination not merely to exist, but to live! Mikhail, who was once a respected Math teacher, was barely able to open the door to his apartment after years of collecting garbage from the streets. He had to drag himself over garbage 2-meters high and then creep along the top of the piles, his back touching the ceiling as he went. This was the only way to get to the one place in his single room apartment where there was enough space for him to sleep. Now, Mikhail has almost cleaned out his apartment and freed himself from years’ worth of collected trash. And he is not alone in his success! Many of the other dancers have started to overcome their own struggles. They have taken the first steps and, in the sunset of their lives, begun to live a full life again.Following the inspirational, heartfelt, and sometimes hilarious story of Mikhail and his new found friends, our film traces the journey of the Chosen Ones. It showcases each character’s personal narrative and artfully weaves them together. Although each story is deeply personal, and the struggles of The Chosen Ones are defined by the particularities of a life in Armenia, the larger issues addressed by the film go far beyond our little country. Growing old, after all, is universal, and the struggles of the Chosen Ones illuminate the responsibility that all societies have, to make sure that some of the most vulnerable amongst them don’t fall through the cracks. But what’s more, our film showcases the elderly not only in their needy and melancholy moments, but as the heroes of their own story, not bound by their past and ready to seize the future: ready to dream, ready to amaze, and ready to live!