On June 18, the “Moscow” Cinema House hosted the premiere of a “Liberty” TV new documentary which is about emigration. The film is entitled “Notes from migrant work.” Hovhannes Movsisyan, a journalist of “Radio Liberty”, said that this is the “Liberty” TV’s already the fifth documentary film. Hrayr Tamrazyan, Director of Radio Liberty Armenian service, also film director and producer and the author of the project, noted that the “Notes from migrant work” documentary film is a unique tribute and respect to labor migrants who have left Armenia by fate who are the heroes of our time but are left neglected, and so far, there has been no complete reference made about them.
Happiness or bread: this is the way the labor migrants, and these people have no alternative. More than one million Armenians have to travel abroad to raise a family. The searches for a job took them to Rostov, Krasnodar, Moscow, Samara, Vladivostok and even Yakutsk, where there are already 4000 Armenians living there. The labor migrants are doomed to live their lives as in an exile.
They consider themselves as lost people as their fate has been distorted because of the labor exile, their families are split, numerous yearning minors live a fatherlessness childhood. One of the characters of the film says that labor migrant is a sacrifice for the sake of the family, and also asks to call them a hired hand rather than labor migrants. One of them said that because of their earning a bread abroad, their children have become “artificial orphans.” And the husbands earning their bread abroad with their bitter sweat and their suffered family members address their voice in different wordings to the leader of the country – the true culprit of their misfortune and migration. After all, they love their country but unfortunately, the country cannot feed their families. The husbands working as a laborer in remote locations, driving a taxi and a bus, building a house and earning money working on constructions wish that Armenians from now on build such houses on their land. Hrayr Tamrazyan said that these people are talking about their fate and grief but are not resentful towards their homeland at all. They wish their children that they at least be able to feed their families in Armenia.
The “Liberty” radio team once again did wonderful work, the words and the messages reached the auditorium, the pain and the yearning were “translated” by the words of the heroes, with impressive footages, children’s glances and sighs of lonely left parents. At the end of the movie, you could see tears in the eyes of everyone. The yearning disease of tough but living without dignity is tougher. The height of the Armenian man’s benchmark of dignity is measured also by the well-being of his family.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
