If Only Everyone Foreign Trailer (2012)

Foreign trailer for If Only Everyone.

This story perhaps touches on the most sensitive string for our nation today, Artsakh. Why did people die, what was the war about, what motivated the heroic deeds? Some have found the answers, others are still searching. But these questions eclipse real lives of real people, who we often think about the least, unfortunately. Whereas they are living right next to us and maybe are asking the same questions…

Our protagonist Gurgen is a common guy, an electronics wiz in a body shop, ostensibly enjoying everybody’s respect and, perhaps, awe. His gloomy appearance may be the reason, or is it his combat merit in the battle for Artsakh? A young Russian girl calls on him, the daughter of his fallen brother in arms Sasha Maslennikov. She asks him to escort her to her father’s grave to plant a BIRCH there that she brought along… Gugo is confounded; he has to confess to her he does not know where the grave is, since he was in a field hospital at the time. Though a friend of theirs may know, he lives in Vayk, where they set out to together.

Eventually it turns out that the grave is on the other side of the border. They have to take their chances to plant the birch. An Azeri shepherd checks them while they are planting it – he used to live in Shushi, and his ten-year-old son had died on a landmine. He would also like to plant a tree on his son’s last stand… The war has scattered people around, sparing no feelings. Gugo and the girl will plant another tree on the boy’s gravesite, not because the shepherd asked them to – they do it following their heart’s call.

This is not a spoiler – suffice it to add that Gugo will have to confront his past, his friends with whom he went out to defend their ideals twenty years ago. Their paths have diverged since, but this darling snub-nosed girl, the daughter of a Russian soldier and an Armenian woman who had fallen victim to Sumgait pogroms, and for whose memory her husband volunteered to fight for Artsakh, will awaken long-forgotten sentiments in them. They will join efforts to help their friend’s daughter, live through trials and adventures together, understanding that their lives did have a purpose and that the tree they plant is a symbol of life, not just a token of memory for the departed.