A new look at the Armenian diaspora,
through the journey of Levon, who works in a
car salvage yard in Los Angeles. Through its leaps
in space and time, the film exacerbates the
disillusionment of its character, who comes from Soviet
Armenia, and who lives, rather than the American dream,
the nightmare of unbridled capitalism.
Commentaries
Deadlock is the second installment in the five-documentary film series dedicated to the Armenian diaspora by filmmaker Harutyun Khachatryan. The film’s main character is a longtime friend of the director. After having obtained a green card for the United States, he leaves his homeland to search for a brighter future in the land of the free and the brave. Unfortunately, the USA is not what it pretends to be through advertisement and pop culture. A world dominated by the rule of profit constantly crushes hopes and lives. Working in a car yard and barely scraping by the necessary to survive on a daily basis, he starts longing for his birthplace. Even though he yearns to go back to Armenia and works relentlessly and tirelessly, he cannot afford it. Deadlock is a painful musing on exile and disillusionment as well as a political inquiry into what it means to live in a capitalist country. Khachatryan’s approach is a deeply humanistic one and his sensitive observational way of filming allows the material to resonate and reverberate in all its poetic and political complexity.
Giona A. Nazzaro
