My feeling is there is a source of man’s pride. I think that for the first time I came to Armenia in 1990, I thought that there is a possibility that Yerevan could be a center for inviting people from the area, that there was a natural sense of hospitality, but also an ability and curiosity for the people here to look outside of their own culture. So, festival is not only a way of concentrating a national cinema, but is also invitation to people from outside. I think that makes this festival unusual is that there is no real glamour, there is no distraction from the film going itself, there is no a celebrity culture. So, you don’t have to worry about management. Some people don’t necessarily get caught up in this frenzy. And it has been incredible to have this guest’s counter, to have this retrospective to introduce the Armenian people. There wouldn’t be cinema otherwise. I am really proud of it. I hope that the festival will grow and I hope that I will be able keep coming back; it is so long trip just to be there. It is crazy, I took the plane from New York on Wednesday night and Thursday morning I was coming here. It is just far away.

The festival’s closing movie is your latest one – ‘Adoration’. Why exactly ‘adoration’? Isn’t it true that for each one of the characters there is a reason to search for the truth about the own adoration?

Well, for me the word adoration suggests an object of worship. There are lots of objects of adoration in this film, but the key one of course is the Simone himself. I mean, he is an object of adoration not only of his uncle, but also of his grandfather and Sabine as well and for reasons that he is not able to completely understand. The question is that people become who they are, they become objects. And the way people can also make themselves into object and the way people can objectify other people and present them as object. It is fascinating. There is an evolution in the film between the ideas of drama as a way of personal expression, but also as a means of therapy, and that once, when the drama teacher introduces this boy to his world of creating of persona, he can’t stop. And he goes on into Internet and creates all this consequences, but ultimately he still needs to make his this journey to his own reality. And that may also require taking certain objects, which have meaning, and destroying them. It’s a crazy film.

I have read that there is a real story from 90`s, familiar to that case. Why didn’t use it?

Well, I think, in fact it is, because of the idea of victim culture that ultimately once destroyed goes on the net. There is the desire of everyone to tell a story. No, I started it with the real story, but there it did no sense. It was like in 1986, I couldn’t tell out the story in the present day, because Simone is 16. And I couldn’t tell the story in the year 2000, because it didn’t have Internet. It became to be very, very nasty. So, I told that I don’t really need the real story. It is not that important to me. And in a way people can know it or not, doesn’t really matter.

Maybe for Simone the other question is, is it easy to find yourself into the imaginative story of a victim, to be part of life stories of so many people, far away from the personal story, which is not a criminal one?

Yeah, this is a very good question. I think that what happened is his story is still story of violence. Basically he has been thought to believe, that there is this hundreds-old active violence in his family, which is mystery. And of course he hasn’t been given access to the truth at that moment. He finds his metaphor to a character, which allows him to understand his parents. I think we all need to understand our parents. I think it is a basic need that any child needs at a certain point. But in a way through the grandfather and through even the uncle and strangely enough through Sabine, all this people are withholding this information for him. They think that they are doing it for his own good, but it actually leads to this very unusual and quite dangerous behavior. I also think that the culture provokes that. I think that, we are dealing with a generation, when you have Facebook. Anyone, who has 500 friends or more on Facebook is not dealing with reality. They are dealing with the ability to create an alternate sense of who they are.

Doesn’t Simone go too far away with his fiction by turning it into reality for the publicity? Actually can we say that this is a story about overstepping the lines, not giving-up, not-understanding? Does Simone feel happy with the created public will of punishment as a strong reaction from the world outside?

annes, when a young woman has been raped and the judge found the rapper for innocent. She was so upset that she went to YouTube and she started begging people to believe her. And she created this incredible amount of attention. Of course the question is did that make her feel better and if people believe her, because now she was telling the story on the net. And also most disturbingly, was she good enough in presenting that truth? Would people believe her? There is a performative aspect. It is all about show. It is all about being able to create that his. It becomes more and more extreme. It is question of being able make myself interesting. And one of this ways is by creating drama. Drama could involve pain; it could also involve humor – anyone of the number of the factors, which provide entertainment. And in some levels Simone`s story becomes much entertaining, first to his classmates, who are trying to figure out if he is telling out the

The punishment topic seems drastic even on grandfather’s deathbed. His paradox will of punishment seem like inability to forgive about his daughter’s decision despite of his love to her. Is the forgiveness impossible or just the cruel truth is the only one?

Well, that is a big question. But people do that. But I think at that point he really believed that, despite that sometimes the noble lie seems better.