Komitas, dir. Don Askarian, West Germany/Belgium 1988, 96 mins, Armenian and German with English subtitles
Book tickets
The Armenian Film Society London and Armenian Heritage Month campaign present a long overdue UK premiere of Komitas, a haunting and unconventional film by Don Askarian.
The film is dedicated to one of Armenia’s most significant cultural figures — Komitas Vardapet, the pioneering composer and musicologist, who was one of the intellectuals arrested on 24 April 1915 and deported, signalling the beginning of the mass Genocide.
Stepanakert-born, Moscow-educated Askarian – who emigrated to West Berlin in the late 1970s after spending time in a Soviet prison – is the (missing) link between late Tarkovsky and Parajanov. The film feels like former’s Mirror, further distorted by the brutality of the events of 1915 and their consequences – major parts of the film take place in one of the French asylums where he lived following the evacuation. While the slow cinema of Tarkovsky is felt throughout, Parajanov-inspired fresques dominate the composition of every shot, making the film strangely familiar, yet innovative in how it tackles the rather conservative genre of the biopic.
The screening will be introduced by AFSL curators Kira Adibekov and Tatevik Ayvazyan.
The film is dedicated to one of Armenia’s most significant cultural figures — Komitas Vardapet, the pioneering composer and musicologist, who was one of the intellectuals arrested on 24 April 1915 and deported, signalling the beginning of the mass Genocide.
Stepanakert-born, Moscow-educated Askarian – who emigrated to West Berlin in the late 1970s after spending time in a Soviet prison – is the (missing) link between late Tarkovsky and Parajanov. The film feels like former’s Mirror, further distorted by the brutality of the events of 1915 and their consequences – major parts of the film take place in one of the French asylums where he lived following the evacuation. While the slow cinema of Tarkovsky is felt throughout, Parajanov-inspired fresques dominate the composition of every shot, making the film strangely familiar, yet innovative in how it tackles the rather conservative genre of the biopic.
The screening will be introduced by AFSL curators Kira Adibekov and Tatevik Ayvazyan.
Book tickets
Wed, 29 Apr 2026
Cinema 1
08:30 pm
Ticket information
- All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
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Access information
Cinema 1
- Both our Cinemas have step free access from The Mall and are accessible by ramp
- We have 1 wheelchair allocated space with a seat for a companion
- All seats are hard back, have a crushed velvet feel and they do not recline
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- Arm rest either side of the seat dimensions: L 27 x W 7 x H 20
for the following requirements:
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