Yearning is a 1990

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film based on

Hrachya Kochar Hrachya Kochar (; 19 January 1910 – 2 May 1965), born Hrachya Kochari Gabrielyan, was an Armenian writer and publicist. He won the first state prize of the Armenian SSR for his novella ''Nahapet'', which was adapted into a Nahapet, film of th ...

's novel Nostalgia. Directed by

Frunze Dovlatyan Frunze Vaghinaki Dovlatyan ( hy, Ֆրունզե Վաղինակի Դովլաթյան; May 26, 1927 in Gavar – August 30, 1997 in Yerevan) was an Armenian film director and actor. People's Artist of USSR (1983). Biography Frunze Dovlatyan was bo ...

Plot

(From

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

) The story takes place in 1930s

Soviet Armenia The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,; russian: Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика, translit=Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) also commonly referred to as Soviet A ...

. Arakel Aloyan is a naive peasant who left his homeland in

Western Armenia Western Armenia (Western Armenian: Արեւմտեան Հայաստան, ''Arevmdian Hayasdan'') is a term to refer to the eastern parts of Turkey (formerly the Ottoman Empire) that are part of the historical homeland of the Armenians. Weste ...

after the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

of 1915, having witnessed his village burnt and women raped. All the efforts of family members to persuade Arakel to accustom himself to a new life in Soviet Armenia are in vain whilst he suffers from nostalgia. After having a vision one sleepless night, Arakel crosses the Soviet-Turkish border, visits his village ("to visit the tombs of my parents, to kiss the remaining walls of our village church"), and is interrogated by

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

cavalrymen who report that his village no longer exists. After returning, he's captured by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

(Soviet state security) and accused of "spying against the state." He tragically ends his life in the exile train to

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. 1990 films 1990 drama films Films directed by Frunze Dovlatyan Films set in Armenia Films set in the Soviet Union Films set in Turkey Soviet drama films Armenian drama films Soviet-era Armenian films Armenian-language films {{1990s-USSR-film-stub