Here, Elsewhere
DUTCH PREMIERE
Unable to film in Nagorno-Karabakh himself, the filmmaker asks his friends to document their final months there. Two months later, war breaks out.
July 2023. Nagorno-Karabakh has been under siege by Azerbaijan for seven months. Sensing the approach of war, Lebanese-Armenian-Belgian filmmaker Comes Chahbazian asks his friend Artsiv to film his daily life with his wife, Tatev, and their five children. Following his instructions, the couple records their lives on a mobile phone, capturing the rhythms of family life amid isolation, uncertainty and the growing threat of war. Through images of striking tenderness, a quiet resistance emerges – that of a people on the verge of having to flee their homeland for good.
SCREENINGS
Friday 6 November 16:30
Saturday 7 November 16:45
Director Comes Chahbazian will be present for a Q&A after the screenings
Programme section(s): Focus: Roots | Docs Open Debates
Original title: Ici, ailleurs | Year: 2026 | Runtime: 67′
Country: Belgium, Armenia | Language: Armenian | Subtitles: English
Director: Comes Chahbazian | Production: Julien Contreau – Matière Première; Luna Blue film, RTBF, CBA | Screenplay: Comes Chahbazian | Cinematography: Artsiv Lalayan, Tatev Lalayan | Editing: Pauline Piris-Nury | Sound: Pauline Piris-Nury
FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION)
Visions du Réel International Film Festival Nyon, 2026 – World Premiere, Best Medium Length Film Prize | Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival, 2026
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Comes Chahbazian was born in Beirut at the dawn of the Lebanese Civil War. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a top athlete. At the age of 15, Belgium became his adopted home. Later, Armenia emerged as an essential anchor in his life. Weekly visits to the cinema during his teenage years, followed by the selection of his first short film at the Venice International Film Festival, sealed his fate. He became a self-taught filmmaker. Today, the father of Serli, Biayna and Dzovinar, he lives and works in Brussels. Here, Elsewhere is his latest film.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
It’s difficult explaining cinema to an amateur. For me, a point of view is the basis of cinema. Amateurs don’t imagine how difficult and time-consuming it will be. To start, I gave him three keywords: the siege, the resistance, and the war that would come sooner or later. I would take screenshots of the footage, mark them up in red and tell him: “I don’t want this in the shot. You have to shoot from here. From the right, not from the left.” Then I would send the screenshots back to him on WhatsApp. Frustration soon gave way to recognition. One month later, it was a miracle. The footage started to come, and it was good. It reminded me of my own images. And the second miracle was when his wife Tatev started filming. She was better than him; she understood me from the first moment.
