Calendar

A Canadian couple of Armenian origin travel to Armenia to discover their roots. The man, who is a photographer, has been commissioned to take pictures for an annual calendar. The couple is guided by a local cicerone whom the wife falls in love with. When the photographer returns to Canada, his wife remains in Armenia. During the following year the husband tries to write to her.

COMMENTARY
Atom Egoyan decided to spend the rouble he was awarded at the Moscow Film Festival in 1991 on a trip to Armenia together with his wife, to find their roots and make a film on the theme. It didn't turn out as the documentary they had expected, instead the film is about the terms of love, our longing for our original habitat and the ability of language to shape that longing.
A Canadian photographer with Armenian roots, played by Egoyan himself, is commissioned to go to Armenia to take photographs of churches for a calendar. His Armenian wife, played by Egoyan's wife in real life, joins him as an interpreter. They hire a man to come along as a chauffeur and guide, someone who is also knowledgeable about the churches they are visiting. The photographer shoots the major part of the trip with a videocamera, keeping a kind of diary, or maybe making a holiday movie. Later, images from the trip to Armenia are alternated with pictures taken after the photographer's return to Canada.
Early on in Calendar you realize how the film is going to end. The image of the double nature of language is also established early on: definition and boundlessness, the triggering element in the film and the explanation as to why things happen the way they do. Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote in 1914:
''We tend to take the speech of a Chinese for inarticulate gurgling. Someone who understands Chinese will recognize language in what he hears. Similarly I often cannot discern the humanity in a man.'' This quote is applicable to Atom Egoyan's film Calendar in two decisive ways.
The chauffeur and the wife like each other's company. Soon the photographer becomes an outsider in two ways. Partly the distance between himself and his surroundings is brought home by the video camera, which takes on a symbolic meaning, and partly because he doesn't command the language which pulls the chauffeur and his wife closer together. ''Do his stories mean anything to you'', the wife asks on one occasion, referring to the interpretation she has just made of the chauffeur's story. ''They are interesting'', is the photographer's cool reply. On another occasion the photographer checks how long it takes for the wife and the interpreter to notice him inbetween questions. 2 minutes and 54 seconds. While they discover the meaning of each other's languages, he cannot discern the humanity in his wife. ':'
Åke Hagman

Medverkande
Arsinée Khanjian, Atom Egoyan: Producent
Doris Hepp: Manus
Atom Egoyan: Foto
Norayr Kasper: Talat språk
English