A French photographer sets out on the trail of her ancestor who was placed in an Armenian orphanage during the Great Catastrophe of 1915. Her journey is upended by the encounter with Artur, a child left to his own devices, who must give up his dreams to become a soldier in a country overshadowed by the specter of war.

Cast & Crew
Producers: Stéphane Jourdain, Jérôme Animer, Vilen Gharibyan
Director: Gaëlle Hamalian-Testud, Hakob Melkonyan
Script: Gaëlle Hamalian-Testud, Hakob Melkonyan
Director of Photography: Hovhannes Khachatryan, Vardges Manukyan, Arsen Khechoyan
Sound: Vagharsh Avjyan
Editing: Justine Hiriart
Cast: Arthur Hamalian, Gaëlle Hamalian-Testud, Hakob Melkonyan, Artur Karapetyan, Anush Karapetyan, Narine Karapetyan, Tamara Mouradyan, Arman Raimkoulov
Production: La Huit, Leitmotiv Production, ArmavFilm

Gaëlle Hamalian-Testud
Gaëlle Hamalian-Testud (born in 1965) is a French photographer, author, and filmmaker of Armenian descent. She lives in the Basque Country. She has created a photo series documenting the everyday lives of women, men, and children in Japan, Vietnam, Mexico, and Armenia. Her work has been exhibited in various venues and published in three photography books. Her images have also been featured in cultural diversity events supported by UNESCO. The Opéra National de Bordeaux has commissioned her multiple times to photograph behind-the-scenes life at the opera. She is currently working on a portrait series of women living with cancer for the House of Hermès. Alongside her artistic practice, she has consistently led photography workshops for socially disadvantaged teenagers. For the past six years, she has collaborated with filmmaker Hakob Melkonyan on several film projects, including the co-direction of the documentary Seuls, her first film.

Filmography
Alone (2025)․

Hakob Melkonyan
Since 2009, Hakob Melkonyan  has been living between France and Armenia. He studied at University of Cinema and Theater in Yerevan (2001–05), then at University of Television and Film in Munich (2006–09). After directing a number of 52-minute documentaries, he wrote and directed his first feature-length documentary, L'Arbre, about the Armenian Genocide. The film was screened in seven countries and won the Grand Prize at the Vues du Monde Festival in Montreal in 2016. In 2020, he wrote and directed his second film, Blocus, which portrays an Armenian village struggling to survive the ongoing war on the border with Azerbaijan. The film was developed with Docmonde and Lumière du Monde. In 2023, he completed his third feature-length documentary, Nous étions frères, which focuses on the border war with Azerbaijan. After completing this personal trilogy, he is now working on his first narrative feature film.

Filmography
The Tree (2015), Blokade (2020), We Were Brothers (2023), Alone (2025)․