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MY ARMENIAN PHANTOMS
by Tamara Stepanyan

SYNOPSIS
In My Armenian Phantoms, filmmaker Tamara Stepanyan embarks on an evocative journey through the forgotten world of Armenian cinema. Sparked by a dialogue with her father, renowned Armenian actor Vigen Stepanyan, this captivating documentary brings to life the vibrant and often overlooked history interwoven with personal loss. Drawing on a rich tapestry of moments of film and her own memories, My Armenian Phantoms reveals a profound cultural and artistic legacy to new audiences. The film explores the creative spirit behind films that spoke to universal themes of identity, love, struggle, and artistic expression—a cinematic tradition that produced some of the most visually striking and thematically powerful films of its era. It captures not just Soviet Armenian cinema, but the enduring soul of Armenian storytelling—its beauty, its struggles, and its unyielding spirit.
DETAILS
75 mins
2025
France, Armenia
Armenian, English

CREDITS
Director: Tamara Stepanyan
Script writers: Tamara Stepanyan, Jean-Christophe Ferrari
Producers: Céline Loiseau, Alice Baldo, Tamara Stepanyan
Associated producers: Miléna Poylo & Gilles Sacuto
Film Heritage consultant: Vigen Galstyan
Assistant director: Ophelia Azizyan
Cinematographer: Claire Mathon
Editor: Olivier Ferrari
Sound designer: Jocelyn Robert
Color grader: Graziella Zanoni
Line Producers: Céline Loiseau, Karina Simonyan
Composer: Cynthia Zaven

BIOGRAPHY
DIRECTOR - TAMARA STEPANYAN
A film director born in Armenia, Tamara Stepanyan moved to Lebanon in the early 1990s and continued her studies at the National Film School of Denmark. She now lives in France and is considered to be the new voice of contemporary Armenian film. Her feature film, Embers (2012), premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. She directed Those from the Shore (2016), best documentary at the Boston Film Festival and the Amiens Film Festival. Village of Women (2019) participated in over 30 festivals and received 9 international awards and an étoile de la SCAM. She is currently in post-production on her first fiction film, Save the dead, shot in Armenia, with Camille Cottin and Zar Amir Ebrahimi.
SELECT FESTIVALS
BERLINALE 2025〡IT'S ALL TRUE 2025
PRESS
"Ultimately universally relevant"
— Modern Times Review
"A tribute to some of the forgotten gems of Armenian cinema"
— Business Doc Europe
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