Sareen Hairabedian’s documentary is a powerful exploration of inter-generational trauma and the plight of the growing number of displaced people in our world due to war, conflict and persecution. My Sweet Land asks us to work together, no matter how challenging that may be, to ensure all people have the right to live in a peaceful home where freedoms are protected, and human rights are a reality for all and not just a few. My Sweet Land is currently awaiting a UK-wide release date.
Home is a word we often use lightly, with little thought as to its meaning. Home is where we rest our heads each night without fear of harm; it is where we stamp our identity, entertain our family and friends or bring up our children in security. It can be the town, village, or city where we feel we belong and know we have a future, and it can be the cultural and historical lands our ancestors claimed as their own, and we now protect.
For many in our world, the idea of a home is complicated by territorial disputes, civil war, religious persecution, state-sanctioned oppression, genocide and conflicts that still rage in areas long forgotten by politicians in wealthy Western countries.
In 2023, the number of people forced to flee their homes was estimated to be 117 million, according to the United Nations, with 47 million children and young people under 18. Many of those children and teenagers live with the ongoing trauma of war, conflict, genocide and oppression with little to no psychological support. They have no clear home, or in some cases, they are forced to fight for the small amount of ancestral land they hold dear. The Republic of Artsakh is one of those places where children have no option but to fight for their homes.
Many of you have likely never heard of this tiny republic nestled between Armenia and Azerbaijan or know of the decades and centuries of conflict that have raged over its ownership, from Ottoman Empire oppression and the horrors of the Armenian genocide to Russian control and an ongoing cultural and ethnic war with Azerbaijan. For Vrej, the 11-year-old boy at the centre of Sareen Hairabedian’s intimate, emotional and urgent documentary My Sweet Land, his home is where he lives with his parents, grandparents, siblings and friends. His home is Artsakh.
Vrej dreams of being a dentist as he wanders around his village, playing with friends, talking to the local bakers, and supporting his siblings. But war is never far from this eleven-year-old’s thoughts, and he already knows that his dream of dentistry is subject to change. Vrej’s family have lived through an ongoing war for more than three generations, and the inter-generational trauma of each conflict, each young man’s death and every piece of land lost is written on the face of every child, parent and grandparent.
War is expected, and every day is a trial run of what every adult knows is still to come. In Artsakh, security and freedom are constantly under threat, and Vrej’s dreams are clouded by the knowledge that he will likely have to defend his home in the future. Even his school classes reflect the need to prepare Artsakh’s children for war. As one soldier says, “This is a kindergarten for the Army.” It’s a brutal and blunt comment, but one that demonstrates how militarism has become the last hope for survival and security.
In filming family life over several years that see Vrej and his family flee their home due to conflict before tentatively returning only to find more of their land gone, Hairabedian becomes a part of the family unit and a trusted confidant; her camera is a diary that enables the family to speak openly and honestly about their hopes, fears and the inter-generational trauma that haunts them.
As Vrej grows into a teenager, his comfort in expressing his innermost feelings also grows. As we leave him, he sits on a rock, staring out at the fields he calls home before looking directly at Hairabedian and asking, “Does this film have a happy or a tragic ending where the hero dies?” It’s a statement that shows his realisation that he will likely need to fight one day, and it’s devastating to hear.
My Sweet Land is documentary filmmaking at its most powerful, urgent and intimate. Vrej’s story reminds us that home should never be taken for granted, and for far too many children, teenagers, adults, and older people in our world, home is not secure nor guaranteed.
Sareen Hairabedian’s documentary is a powerful exploration of inter-generational trauma and the plight of the growing number of displaced people in our world due to war, conflict and persecution. My Sweet Land asks us to work together, no matter how challenging that may be, to ensure all people have the right to live in a peaceful home where freedoms are protected, and human rights are a reality for all and not just a few.
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