Amman 2024 Film Review: MY SWEET LAND, and The Usefulness Of Having Dreams

As the title says, what we see is the subtle commitment of the director who herself is from Armenian descent and speaks Armenian. Her great grandparents escaped from the genocide and found refuge in the Middle East. She describes growing up with the story of Artsakh saying: ‘I think this connection created a natural bond which allowed for this film to come to life’. That could be, but we can only look into that part of her soul that is reflected in the film. And there we see her clever and passionate dedication to make the narrative work as it does.

And then there is the protagonist Vrej and his friends. A kid and kids as other kids. Only he talks sometimes, eleven years old, and two years later with a tumultuous flight to the Armenian homeland and a difficult return through the mountains and past Russian sentries back to Artsakh. Happily their house – other than some others – still stands undamaged. We see him and his playmates in all their different habitats as there are family, parents, other relatives, at school, in eastern orthodox church, the village and the great outdoors. There are military instructors teaching the kids how to march, how to handle and hold their guns and how to recognize places where landmines are. And all of these breathe the spirit of a nation under threat.

Sometimes very explicit, as the schoolmistress of priests explains the spirit of the country, sometimes as a casual matter of fact, as his grandmother reflects on the forever wars or as his grandfather sits in his easy chair with his combat fatigue trousers on. And in between there is peace, there are vineyards, bees and beekeepers. There is tea with grandmother, boys playing, strolling through streets and countryside.

Vrej’s dream supersedes war and touches the viewer with personal kind of hope. So My Sweet Land does many things. And it does them in a cinematic, empathic and fascinating way that at the same time informs us about the mindset of a small nation at the point of being swallowed up by history. But maybe one thing sticks out above all:  the usefulness of having dreams. Especially in dire situations.