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TONRATUN THE ARMENIAN HISTORY TOLD BY WOMEN

ԹՈՆՐԱՏՈՒՆ

By Inna MKHITARYAN

CINEMA FOUNDATION OF ARMENIA - as FIN

Drama - Completed 2022

- Year of production
- 2022
- Genres
- Drama, Documentary
- Countries
- ARMENIA, FRANCE
- Duration
- 85 mn
- Director(s)
- Inna MKHITARYAN
- Producer(s)
- Anzhela FRANGYAN (DoKino), Stéphane JOURDAIN (La Huit), Eid DE GAULLE (Cined)
- Synopsis
- The film revolves around moments shared by five women of different generations: Arus, 65, Hazarvard, 72, and her granddaughter Varduhi, 22, Elinar, 63, and her daughter-in-law Tatev, 30. These women are from three different families who all live in Katnaghbyur, a village that’s only 60 km from the capital of Armenia. Katnaghbyur is a patriarchal place, where the roles of gender are very different from each other. The men are uninvolved in the home and family, and their lives are filled with passing time. This means that much of the responsibility falls on the women. This includes the baking of daily bread, an act that is both routine and ritual. The actions of the film take place in the tonratun from sunrise to sunset. A tonratun is where the fire for baking bread is. Its’ walls are black with smoke and in the center of the small room there is a hole that is a meter and a half deep. This is the tonir that is made from clay. Dough that has been rolled out long and thin is hit onto the walls of the underground oven and left to cook. It then becomes lavash, the traditional Armenian flatbread. The tonratun is a women’s place - the only place where they can openly talk about the things that are considered shameful and embarrassing in Armenian society, such as husband’s beating, abortion, jealousy, husband’s drunkenness, aggression, women’s pain. The tonratun is a 30m2 area where women, away from the eyes of society, tell stories to the fire and mix tears into the flour. Their memories, conversations and humor becoming part of their daily nourishment.