OSCE presence co-organizes European Film Festival in remote Armenia

KAPAN, Armenia, 16 December 2006 - Ten films will be screened in coming days in remote Armenia, thanks to the local OSCE presence and the European Union, which brought the 3rd European Film Festival in Armenia to Kapan, the capital of the remote Syunik province.

The films, including "Being Julia," a British 2005 Golden Globe winner, and "Merry Christmas", a French-German-English-Belgian-Romanian co-production about a peaceful Christmas night in 1914, as World War I was raging, promote and raise awareness about European values. The festival also includes films from Germany, Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Poland. The movies were earlier shown in Gyumri, northern Armenia.

"Promoting cultural values is part of what the OSCE is about," said Garik Chilingaryan, Co-ordinator of the OSCE Programme Implementation Presence in Syunik. "This region of Armenia is very far from the capital and this festival helps bring European cultural traditions here. It also contributes to the process of making rural Armenia closer to Europe."

Short documentaries from another International Film Festival, the "Golden Apricot", held annually in Armenia, and winning films from an OSCE-supported competition for environmental journalists will be screened before each movie.

The recently created OSCE Presence in Syunik assists in implementation of economic and environmental programmes in the region.