Bon Voyage (2021)

The staff of a sleepy airport in the vicinity of a small city goes through its daily routine. Weather is checked in the control room, the secretary makes coffee for the director, the workers come in for an obligatory medical check-up while the cleaners ensure that the marble floors are spotlessly clean. Something is not quite right however...The airplanes and the passengers are nowhere to be seen. Through wry observational scenes, Bon Voyage describes the absurd ironies of a not-so-ordinary post-Soviet community stuck in the political impasse generated by a frozen military conflict. Fully equipped for accommodating small civilian flights, the recently rebuilt Stepanakert Airport in the unrecognized break-away Republic of Artsakh does not operate due to the permanent threat of missile strikes. Unwilling to risk any lives, the airport, nevertheless, remains "open". The dreary ritual of keeping the standby facility operational turns the workers into a closely-knit family unit, where each individual lives out their personal dreams while continuing to hope for the basic freedom to cross borders and receive guests.