A Road Trip Through The Storm (2021)
When Mama Went Away (2021)
June 8, 2021Project Summery
A Road Trip Through The Storm is an intimate documentary that follows filmmaker Armen Sarvarian on a deeply personal journey across post-war Armenia.
Sparked by the loss of his father and the nation’s devastation after the 2020 conflict, Armen joins the humanitarian organization Focus on Children Now to travel through frontline villages, refugee communities, and remote towns. Along the way, he meets volunteers, teachers, artists, and families whose stories reveal both the lingering trauma of war and the resilience of those determined to rebuild.
Blending personal reflection with on-the-ground observation, the film becomes a moving portrait of a nation in recovery—and a testament to the power of solidarity, memory, and human connection in the face of overwhelming loss.
Filmmaker’s Style & Narrative Approach
Armen employs a layered, hybrid storytelling approach that blends personal memoir, observational documentary, and social reportage into a unified cinematic journey. His style is grounded in first-person reflection, using his own search for identity and grief over his father’s passing as an emotional throughline that guides viewers across Armenia’s post-war landscape.
Rather than relying on staged interviews or structured exposition, Sarvarian adopts a road-diary format, gathering stories organically from the people he meets—volunteers, refugees, educators, artists, and residents in frontline communities. Much of the film unfolds in motion: inside cars, across remote villages, along borders, and within everyday spaces where ordinary individuals confront extraordinary circumstances.
His camera favors intimate proximity and lived-in realism, allowing encounters to speak for themselves. Each character introduces a new angle—humanitarian work, cultural resilience, displacement, art, memory—resulting in a multi-threaded narrative that mirrors the complexity of Armenia’s current reality.
By weaving personal history, national trauma, and humanitarian stories into a single arc, the filmmaker creates a documentary that is both emotionally vulnerable and socially urgent, offering viewers a layered portrait of a nation weathering a storm while holding on to the people who keep hope alive.
