Meet the Neighbors

At last, after almost one and half a year of hard work, our epic documentary film, Neighbors, is ready to go.

This was probably the heaviest project that we ever worked on, in many ways; the subject of Armenian-Turkish relationships is something not everyone would risk to work on, but we were stupid ambitious enough not only to work on it, but to go to the actual borders and film people living on the edge of two different civilizations for a whole year. We had to deal with two different governments who have no diplomatic relations with each other, worked with national security, three different armies, got arrested and taken to the court, and generally we managed to drive a number of governmental institutions mad. Despite all the adventures, we did everything to make a very interesting and emotional story and present you the colorful characters of nice, controversial, funny and crazy people that you’ll love.

Once again, I would like to thank all the people who worked very hard on this film; thanks to Moushegh and David, the cruel cameramen, and Narek, who assisted them; to Tzovinar and Gayane for an outstanding soundtrack and performance; to Nesra, who put all the efforts for the film with love and devotion; to Tim Straight, who followed every single day of the work on the film and supported it in all the possible ways, to all Manana, where every single person was doing everything to help us on the most difficult periods of the project, to Paros Foundation for support and guidance, and of course, the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Golden Apricot Film Festival and Anadolu Kultur, the sponsors and supporters of this film. Thanks for being crazy enough to believe that this initiative can come true.

So, Neighbors’ premiere screening will take place in Istanbul on April 12th, in frames of Istanbul International Film Festival, those who are there or plan to attend the festival, make sure to be there. If you forget to buy a ticket, or will have any problems getting inside, or will need any kind of help, please make sure not to ask me for anything. And don’t look for me. And I don’t know you. Leave me alone. Ehm, sorry, it’s just something left from the screenings of The Third Rider. Don’t pay attention.

The film is not available online or on DVD-s yet, but it will be later this year, so don’t forget to check our website regularly.