When French auditor Alain Delage (Grégoire Colin) is sent to the
remote breakaway state of Nagorno-Karabakh to make an official
recommendation about the feasibility of a new airport that would
open this troubled region in the South Caucasus to air traffic after
decades of war and international isolation, he is drawn into the
struggles of a proud and willful people living on hope alone and
begins to defy his regulations to help them achieve their goals.
Armenian-born writer-director Nora Martirosyan’s extraordinary
debut combines a precise, subtle depiction of a complex geopolitical situation with a poetic, sensual evocation of life in a place
where the outside world is little more than a threat of gunfire but
the dream of a better future is inextinguishable. With its gleaming
new airport waiting for airplanes that may never arrive and an
invisible but lethally dangerous border lying somewhere over the
hills, the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh appears
caught in such painfully absurd circumstances that some viewers
might think—or hope—that it is a fictional state. Sadly, Nora
Martirosyan’s captivating first feature is as factual as it is timely:
in the fall of 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war over the
region, leading to thousands of deaths and mass displacement.

Cannes Label 2020 + ACID 2020