From epigraph to epilogue Despite the fact that I read the description before the trip to the cinema and immediately before the screening, and even now on the "film search", the line with Narekatsi can be safely removed, and the principal ethnic choice of the Director do not pay attention.
The title in its simplicity and conciseness carries a huge ambiguity, but in the context of the film itself, a simple “life is an open book” crystallizes. And yes, we see the book of life as a whole, all its stages, each of them revealed as an act of creation. We observe the authorship of the characters, find ourselves writing a new paragraph. One of them said goodbye to his childhood and started a new chapter on family life. Another writes a chapter on loyalty to the Motherland, which has grown stronger over the years. The third writes, as it were, an epilogue, an ode to the Lord, thanks for a long life, and the fourth writes that he has made himself and does not believe in God. The end of each story remains open. Everyone is an author, everyone is a creator, but no one knows the end. Only a child does not create: he cannot hold a feather, and therefore before him a clean sheet, and his birth itself is only an epigraph.
Speaking of the choice already mentioned – to shoot only Armenians in the context of Narikatsi’s work, The Book is not a film about the Armenian people, their traditions and culture. The global idea of the meaning of life is also not very clear, despite the demonstration of different stages of the human path in completely different circumstances. There is no discussion on this subject either.
The movie is interesting to watch. Situations and geography, together with the stories and reflections of the characters, give a rather high entertainment. Installation transitions perfectly play the role of a teleport, erasing the boundaries between different parts of the planet. Due to the smooth change of location, the appearance of a new hero is abrupt, and it is not so easy to say when you moved from Zimbabwe to France, and from Argentina to Armenia. In principle, to say how you became such an adult (old, old) is also quite difficult: after all, yesterday you were a child, and the day before yesterday was a blank slate. Oh, the stream of thought has started.
7 out of 10