– I went to Russian school in Tbilisi. Our generation had seen the war and it had moved to our school becoming inseparable part of our games. Tbilisi was very Armenian at that time. I’ve kept the phonebook of the period and half of the city’s population had Armenian surnames. I had so many pursuits – from collecting stamps to radio construction, but cinema entered my life by chance. One of our classmates, Merabi Jaliashvili, had found somewhere a 16mm spring-wound camera and brought it to the classroom. There was no tape, but we switched the camera on, it whirred and we pretended we were filming each other. Then I found a similar device and realized it interested me. Besides, I grew up in a district where Pepo and Gikor were filmed. The bridge where Gikor was standing in the movie was situated next to our house. There were Armenian cameramen at Georgia Film and my classmate’s uncle was the director of the studio. He encouraged us to start working there as assistants. But I received real cinematographic education at Hayfilm studio. All the rest is a bluff, as the phrase goes.
-Thus you moved to Armenia in 1955?
– Big city, strangers. I had the addresses of only two acquaintances written on pieces of paper, but I tore both and threw them away. How I spent the two years that followed, well, better not talk about them. I used to sleep at the station, all the policemen already knew me. I was admitted to Hayfilm with great difficulty, because I had no registration. One day, I decided to use a trick. The Spandaryan police department was located next to the city morgue. I used to spend night in the Nork gardens at that time, so one day I walked to the police department and tried for the nth time to convince them to register me. A beautiful girl was on duty that day; I applied for registration again and got rejection. Then she offered me coffee and as she went out to make it, I took the stamp from her table and put it wherever necessary. This is how I got the right papers and was admitted to Hayfilm as a lighting technician. My first work was on the production of a film dedicated to Kamo. It was called I Know Him Personally.
-You have worked with such prominent directors as Laert Vagharshyan, Arman Manaryan and Dmitri Keosayan…
– I love all of these films; they are very dear to me, although I would film each of them differently today. The loss of Hayfilm was a bitter blow to me. It was my home of 35 years. I had a room there where I had a collection of showpieces from all movies. The studio was looted, everything was destroyed, and the only thing I managed to keep was the camera with which I had filmed A Spring of Heghnar.
–In fact the film “Where Have You Been, Man of God?” which won Hayak awards, was shot in the wartime turmoil of 1991-94.
– The works on the film began in 1988, but they were weaving a plot against Aghababov and the production was stopped. When choosing a shooting location during the initial production I offered Aghababov to travel to Gogaran, my ancestral village in Lori. He liked it very much, and the shootings started. The room with the shooting equipment was completely destroyed during the earthquake of 1988 and the camera crew survived by chance. The lighting technicians were protesting because of salary delays and the crew arrived in Yerevan on December 6. The production was resumed in 1991. The previously made shots weren’t used, everything was done from scratch and the film was completed in 1994.
My paternal side comes from Artsakh. I’ve always been looking for a chance to travel there. In 1962, an Azerbaijani driver named Rashid or Rafik, how we used to call him, took me from Tbilisi to Shushi. I took great photos there and tried to photograph Azerbaijani women wearing traditional clothes in the market, but one of them came up to me and said it was forbidden to photograph them. I longed to travel to Artsakh afterwards, but I failed. In 1994, the very next day after the shooting of the filmWhere Have You Been, Men of God? was over, I went to Artsakh.
I headed to Artsakh with director Karen Gevorgyan. I filmed materials in Aghdam, Fizuli, Magavuz, Togh, etc. The footage was later used in the different films of the director.
The first ten days were the worst, but then I got used to everything. You look around and people are quiet, they even tell jokes. Bombs are exploding around you, but they are talking peacefully. You feel no fear while filming; you’re just doing your job. But then I shot a horrible scene and couldn’t come to my senses afterwards. 12 new young boys had arrived to join the fighting and had carelessly lit a fire near ammunition to warm themselves up. The powerful explosion that followed tore their bodies into pieces. I shot that scene; I seemed to have lost the sense of fear, but later I had a terrible nausea. I lit two cigarettes at once, one wouldn’t be enough. They gave me vodka later.… War is a cruel thing.
-The photos taken in those days depict the joyful, optimistic faces of our guys that radiated hope contrary to the terrible reality of war.
– We were all sure that we were going to win, because there was no other way. If war starts today, we’ll win again. We are carried along by destiny. There can’t be another option. Some people think younger generation won’t be able to fight if new war wages, but latest incidents on the border proved that such talks are only a bluff. Many things have changed today, everybody thinks of money trying to acquire it shamelessly, by all means. But we will unite in the face of war, the last coward will go to the front, we’ll switch on and defend ourselves and our land. We have no other way.
– Why didn’t that happen in 1915?
– We were lied to at that time, and now we can no longer be deceived. The world has become smaller. The Earth has now become a communal apartment, and you can travel around it in just four hours. Our country will continue its journey of thousands of years, maintaining its mission on providing the world with brains. There is another problem now. Today, those who have money are continually building churches. It would be better if someone started the construction of Hayfilm. It is a unique church too. We have promising young people and many of them choose the path of cinematography, but what can they do after graduation? The film studio should eventually start working and bring together talented people. Albert Mkrtchyan, for example, even at his venerable age, is trying to do something today, but film industry is not for individuals, it requires team work. Meanwhile, Armenia is a wonderful country for the development of filming industry. You can shoot both green forest and snow-capped mountains within the perimeter of 100 kilometers. In Hollywood you have to travel 5000 kilometers to do the same. We have good roads and the hotels are nice too, there is no profligacy, it’s not even dangerous to walk out at night. All of these are important factors for the development of cinematography.
…Levon Atoyants was born in Tbilisi in 1930. In 1951 he left the local secondary school. In 1951-1954 he studied at Leningrad Institute of Motion Picture Engineers. During his studies he also worked at Lenfilm Studio. Afterwards he returned to Tbilisi. In 1954 Atoyants worked at a car repair plant and later at Tbilisi Public Home. In 1955 he moved to Armenia and in 1956 he began working at Hayfilm Studio as an illuminator, assistant cameraman, second cameraman, cameraman of combined shootings and finally as a director of photography of feature films. After HayFilm Studio was sold he worked as a chief cameraperson at various television companies of Armenia.
Since 1967 Atoyants is a member of the Institute for Inventors and Innovators and since 2007_ academician of Armenian Technological Academy. He is also a member of World League of Cultural Workers and LIONS International Charitable Foundation.
He was a lecturer at the Academy of Radio and Television. Currently he lectures at Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography and Anania Shirakatsi University of International Relations.
He has shot over 30 films as a cinematographer. He has been awarded with “USSR Wonderful Film” and “Grigor Narekatsi” medals. In 2012 he was grated the Special Award of the first national cinema «Hayak» awards for his contribution to cinema.In 1994, he left for Artsakh as a cameraman becoming one of the documentarians of the Artsakh war.