MQFF NOTES: When My Sorrow Died - The Legend of Armen Ra & The Theremin (2015, Dir. Robert Nazar Arjoyan)

If you’re after an obscure instrument to take up, the theremin is probably one of your best bets. There’re aren’t too many of them around. Barely anyone will know what you are talking about. You’ll get avant guard cred that you can then back up with a solid history of Russian invention, the fact that it sounds like the eeriness of an early sci-fi film score and the pure oddity of an instrument that you never actually touch.

You’ll have competition on your hands though. If anyone out there is aesthetically matched to the theremin, it is Armen Ra. He came to the instrument via the opera (his auntie was a diva in Iran), school in Boston (after getting stuck in the US as the Cultural Revolution kicked off), the ‘90s NYC club scene (he was one of the more glamourous club kids) and an array of spiritualities. Armen cuts a stunning image perched atop a stage behind the wiry bejewelled theremin, like Claus Nomi throwing shapes. And the shapes conjure up music. Armen Ra vibrates like the externalised vocal chords of an opera diva and his space-like arias (from Mozart to Purcell) set the air alight.

There’s not too much that can match such a curious marriage of physical and musical beauty and Robert Nazar Arjoyan’s documentary portrait of Armen Ra doesn’t attempt to. Aside from the performances, the camera is satisfied talking to Armen straight on and he eats up the screen. Every sentence ends with a flourish. Every life story completes with a self-affirming wink. There are old photos and Super8 images used sparingly throughout but it is Armen’s storytelling that really brings his life alive.

And it is captivating.

★★★☆

Trailer:

When My Sorrow Died - The Legend of Armen Ra and The Theremin screened as part of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.