by Pyeongin Yoo

Christine Haroutounian is a director, writer, and producer working between Armenia and the diaspora. Her debut feature, “After Dreaming”, premiered in the Forum section of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.

“After Dreaming” opens in post-war Armenia, where a senseless killing shatters the fragile calm of everyday life. A well-digger is executed after being mistaken for an enemy. His family chooses to conceal the truth from his daughter, Claudette, and sends her away before the funeral to shield her from further trauma.

Claudette travels with Atom, a disaffected soldier tasked with escorting her across a barren, war-scarred landscape. Their journey lacks a clear destination. It moves through empty roads, temporary shelters, and brief encounters. Moments of intimacy emerge, yet they offer little comfort. Instead, they expose the emotional distance and unresolved wounds both characters carry.

As the journey unfolds, war asserts itself not through combat but through atmosphere and ritual. In one striking communal gathering, a traditional celebration gradually transforms into a militarized spectacle. The scene reveals how deeply violence has penetrated social life. “After Dreaming” moves through grief, memory, and disorientation, depicting a world where the war has ended, but its presence remains inescapable.

In the post-pandemic period, many works have addressed war and state violence directly. More recently, however, attention has shifted toward living with their aftermath. “After Dreaming” belongs to this emerging current. Haroutounian situates the narrative in a quiet aftermath shaped by invisible wounds. Rather than confronting conflict head-on, the story follows characters moving through ordinary spaces while carrying unspoken memories.

Drawing on her background in photography, Haroutounian builds the work around strong visual ideas. Meaning emerges as the characters move across different places and personal histories. Their quiet search to endure, remember, and heal unfolds without clear resolution. Reality slowly slips into dreamlike moments, where recovery feels fragmented, sensory, and uneven.

Visually, the production is often striking and emotionally engaging. Through the cinematography of Evgeny Rodin, lens flares, image distortions, and ghosting effects blur the line between reality and imagination. These choices create a fluid viewing experience, though the gentle rhythm occasionally breaks immersion. The result is a world that hovers between waking life and dreams.

At the same time, “After Dreaming” shows strong visual confidence, yet its narrative remains intentionally loose. Haroutounian puts atmosphere and sensation over a clear dramatic structure. This openness adds emotional depth but can also make the story’s overall direction feel less clear.

At its center lies the untrained yet intense acting of Veronika Poghosyan and Davit Beybutyan. Both actors are making their feature film debuts. Haroutounian avoids traditional acting methods and psychological description. Instead, she draws performances grounded in trust, restraint, and physical presence.

Poghosyan’s Claudette expresses quiet suffering rather than raw emotion. Her face becomes a surface subtly revealing sorrow and confusion. Beybutyan, discovered outside the professional film world, brings a similarly unadorned presence to the role of Atom, rejecting familiar images of a traumatized soldier. Haroutounian builds a delicate realism by eschewing excessive acting. Also, she focuses on voice, rhythm, and presence, harmonizing with the film’s overall tendency to reject dramatic overtones.

Despite being a debut feature, the production includes several ambitious sequences. Most notable is the wedding scene that unfolds over the final fifteen minutes. It alone is enough to establish Christine Haroutounian as a filmmaker deserving close attention.