How a Minsk native is conquering the West
Arseni Khachaturan / afcinema.com
His work has been recognized at the Venice Film Festival, he shoots music videos for world stars and cooperates with famous streaming platforms. All this is the "modest" track record of 30-year-old Arseni Khachaturan, a native of Minsk. His parents emigrated to the United States in the 1990s, and now the young man lives and works in New York. There he learned the craft of filmmaking and made a dozen short films. Euroradio tells about the creative path of the man who is conquering the world of cinema.
Three years ago, Khachaturan also filmed the Franco-Georgian film "The Beginning," directed by Dei Kulumbegashvili. The project was included in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival, won four prizes at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and the main prize at the Trieste International Film Festival. Thanks to this, Arseni was noticed by Guadagnino's team, with whom he began to collaborate.
What else has Khachaturan filmed?
Stand-up for Netflix
Last year, the stand-up comedian Aziz Ansari, a famous comedian, had his performance released on Netflix. It was Khachaturan who filmed it at New York's iconic Comedy Cellar club.
A music video for The Weeknd
This year, world-renowned artist The Weeknd released the music video for his song "Double Fantasy." And yes, the camera work was done by Arseni Khachaturan.
"Idol" on HBO
This year HBO released the "Idol" series. That same HBO, which at different times gave us the highly popular series like "The Sopranos" and "Game of Thrones". One of the main roles in the series was performed by The Weeknd.
"Idol" did not become another hit of HBO. The series was criticized by both critics and viewers who complained about the weak acting and plot. However, there were no questions about the excellent picture quality. It was Arseni, who shot three episodes of the series, and was responsible for it.
Apparently, The Weeknd met Khachaturan on the set of this project. Impressed by Arseni's cinematography, The Weeknd later invited him to shoot a music video.
