Internews Funded Film Awarded a Prize in a Film Festival in Romania

On August 28, 2005, the award ceremony of the SimFest 2005 Film Festival Of The Local TV Channels And The Independent Producers was held at Targu Mures, Romania. The prize for the best foreign documentary film went to the Down And Out (Hatakum), produced by the Kyavar TV Channel of Gavar with financial assistance and consultancy received from the Internews.

The film is about a rural woman – Hasmik – digging artesian wells in a remote village in the Gegharkunik region. She keeps her family thanks to this activity, a challenging one even for men, most of whom refuse to dig wells in that very village. Hasmik’s sister died as a result of an accident while digging wells.

As stated by Hrachuhi Bostanchyan, author of the film and a former journalist of the Kyavar TV channel (currently she lives in Germany), “The prize inspired a second wind for the film.”