Vodka Lemon

Star Review

A deliciously tart study of life in the backend of post-Soviet Armenia, where a melancholic air of nostalgia for a once-loathed past mingles with a sense of disappointment with unfulfilled freedom. Kurdish director Hiner Salem doesn't really have a story to tell, as his characters have too little control over their hand-to-mouth existence to shape their destiny. Instead, he discreetly witnesses how they respond to their everyday frustration, anxiety and boredom. Yet, in spite of the grinding poverty, amenity-less isolation and incessant snow, old soldier Romik Avinian still manages to find love with widow Lala Sarkissian at the local cemetery - and therein lies both the key to the indomitability of this put-upon people and the appeal of a film that is still sufficiently optimistic to find hope in the midst of a ruined dream. A quiet delight.

David Parkinson on 2nd December 2004

View all 90 of David Parkinson’s reviews

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Film Description

A beguiling film, charming and absurd by turns, in which a widow and widower meet in a snowy graveyard in a hopeless Armenian village. They come together and find a way of putting a little life and heart into their lives.

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Set in post-Soviet Armenia, Vodka Lemon opens with a great surreal comic image and ends with a great surreal romantic image. In between these delightful scenes an ecce... more >

Set in post-Soviet Armenia, Vodka Lemon opens with a great surreal comic image and ends with a great surreal romantic image. In between these delightful scenes an eccentric love story between Hamo, an elderly widower, and a nervous vodka-selling mother unfolds, as extremely harsh weather and poverty fail to break their resolve.

Although the potentially wretched situation of these characters could make for tragedy, the film plays many of the darker scenes for wry laughs rather than pathos. When Hamo rushes to collect a letter from his estranged son, he returns to find a string of goggling apparent well-wishers who are really only curious to see if he has been sent any money. When Hamo sells his treasured goods to stay alive, he is confronted by a lugubrious crone whose bargaining prowess when haggling reaches heroic proportions. Only occasionally does the melancholy seep through: in a telling line, Hamo gripes “before the Russians left we didn't have our freedom, but we had everything else”

Hiner Saleem adorns his film with engaging absurd flourishes, such as a running joke of a cantering horseman whose significance is never revealed. The title itself reveals a meaningless quirk of the region: “Why is it called vodka lemon, when it tastes like almonds?” someone asks. “That’s Armenia” deadpans his friend.

A comedy like no other, with stunning shots of snow-swept landscapes and an affectionate tribute to stoicism under difficult circumstances, Vodka Lemon is one of the most unusual but rewarding films of the year.
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DVD Extras

• The Making Of Vodka Lemon featurette (42 minutes)
• Trailer
• 2.0 Dolby audio.

Film Details

Technical Details