My Armenian Phantoms

Stepanyan thought she still had plenty of time to discuss life’s important questions with her father. After his sudden death in 2020, she sought this connection in the many films of him that remain. Vigen Stepanyan was a celebrated stage and film actor, especially during the era of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.

After Armenia regained independence in 1991, the Stepanyan family moved to Lebanon, where Tamara grew up and became a filmmaker. Now she returns to her birthplace and immerses herself in the Armenian film archives, rich with footage that shaped her father, herself and her country.

Drawing on Armenian film classics, documentaries and home videos, she tells the story of a complex and resilient land with a turbulent history: genocide, earthquakes and annexation by the Soviet Union. The poetic sequence of archival material is accompanied by the dialogue Tamara holds with her father’s spirit about historical events, his legacy, their bond, her future, the role of women in the film industry and what it means to be Armenian.