Amo Bek-Nazaryan

A pioneer of cinema in Armenia and the Caucasus, Amo Bek-Nazaryan began his career as a professional athlete. However, he later discovered film, joined the cinema as an actor in 1914, and soon became one of the major stars in the pre-Soviet Russian cinema. In 1918, he graduated from the Moscow Commercial Institute. In 1921, he became the head of the film section of Narkompros in Georgia and later a director of Goskinprom in Georgia. Like his friend and colleague, the Georgian cinema pioneer Ivane Perestiani, Bek-Nazaryan sought to incorporate avant-garde techniques popular in NEP-era Soviet films into conventional narrative frameworks. In 1924, he returned to his native city of Yerevan where he became one of the founders of Armenkino (the predecessor to Armenfilm). He directed the first full-length Armenian feature film, Honor (1925), in collaboration with Sakhkinmretsvi in Georgia. He also directed the romantic film Natela (1926) with the glamorous Nato Vachnadze that same year and, the following year, he directed the first Kurdish film, Zare (1927). In the 1930s, he directed the first Armenian sound film, Pepo (1935), based on a play by Gabriel Sundukyan and with music by the renown Armenian composer Aram Khachaturyan. For this production, he earned the title People's Artist of the Armenian SSR. Following World War II, he directed the film Erkrord karavan (1950) about the repatriation of Armenians living in the United States to Soviet Armenia. This production was canceled by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, a move that personally hurt Bek-Nazaryan. Following this, he did not direct any more films until after the death of Stalin in 1953. After Bek-Nazaryan's death in 1965, Armenfilm adopted his name to their full, official title in his honor. Today, he is widely regarded as the founder of Armenian cinema.