Conciliation Resources

The Dialogue Through Film project is a unique bilateral collaboration across the Nagorny Karabakh conflict divide.

The project started in 2006 and has involved five young journalists from Azerbaijan and five from Nagorny Karabakh in professional training to enable them to produce short films for broadcast. In 2007 a further ten journalists have become involved in the project.

The project is a collaboration of Conciliation Resources with Internews Armenia, Internews Azerbaijan and the Stepanakert Press Club, within the framework of the Consortium Initiative. See more about the Dialogue Through Film project here.

Instructions: click on an image to scroll through the photos at a larger size.

After 13 years: This film gives an impressionistic look at a day in the life of internally displaced boy in Azerbaijan. His acute observations of his neighbours and friends indicate some of the frustrations and emotional difficulties associated with long-term displacement.

A tough nut: Against the backdrop of the local nut harvest, the wife of an Armenian man taken hostage during the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorny Karabakh recounts her family’s ordeal. Through the help of Azerbaijani intermediaries the Armenian is eventually exchanged for an Azerbaijani hostage, though not without extensive physical and psychological trauma.

Karabakh fairytale: This film takes a humorous look at a donkey derby in the unrecognized republic of Nagorny Karabakh, drawing allusions between the positive aspects of the donkey’s legendary character and the local Armenian population. The viewer’s guide is a donkey participating in the 2006 derby, who explores various aspects of local life to give a comic overview of life in the village of Vank.

Bug-gobblers: This film takes a humorous look at the long-standing antipathy between inhabitants of two neighbouring villages in the Kedabeck region of Azerbaijan. The film shows how the two closely related identity groups have sought to differentiate themselves from one another, yet have always avoided violence through traditional conflict resolution methods. The film ends by showing how the context of war with the Armenians has mitigated the sense of difference.

Swept away by life: The inhabitants of the region of Lachin, a corridor of de jure Azerbaijani territory linking Nagorny Karabakh to Armenia under Armenian control since the war, tell their story. With an uncertain future, the region has attracted a random mix of Armenian settlers who struggle to eke out an existence in a no man’s land.

Revival: A blinded Azerbaijani war veteran recounts his experiences in the Armenian-Azerbaijani war and the story of his recovery. After spending three years in despair, he went on to learn and then teach English, before marrying and becoming a father. Confronted with the question of whether he would go to war again, however, he says he would.