An old Mercedes enters the factory that Orbita is named after, which, according to director Yervand Vardanyan, "is like Dante who guides himself and the audience to Inferno." The documentary, included in this year’s Regional competition, takes place in the building that housed one of the largest optical factories in the Soviet Union. There, it depicts the daily lives of the employees of a small backgammon workshop, which is housed in one of the rooms of the otherwise inactive factory.
The idea of making a film here arose after a visit to the workshop, where Yervand went to order backgammon. "My childhood friend, Grno, worked there and always offered to go, knowing my interest in such places," he says. "When I went there, I shot some short videos for Instagram." Then I decided not to publish them, thinking that I might turn this into a film." The fact that the guys at the workshop were not bothered by the presence of a camera at all convinced the director that making a movie here is a good idea.
Filming started in 2022, after Azerbaijan’s September attack on Armenia, and continued with some interruptions for two years. "When I went there to film them, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to record. I knew that they love it when you speak their language, sit, drink and smoke with them,” the director recalls. “The environment of the workshop was also inspiring, the non-stop sounds of instruments, which mixed together to create the impression that you are in some kind of post-apocalyptic world, where a few people have survived an explosion and are making backgammon."
Ultimately, Orbita turns into a mirror that reflects an entire substratum of modern Armenian society, which, although a majority, is very underrepresented in Armenian cinema. Speaking about this misfits hanging out in the factory, Yervand remarks: "we are closed off in our circle of 10-15 people and we think that everyone is like us". “These guys are unfairly ignored, but they have their own world and interests, their own ideas about cinema." Orbita is an essay that places these ideas and views under a magnifying glass that goes beyond its surface, conveying the inevitable loss of the past and the still-unceasing regression.