There Was, There Was Not: A War-Torn Fairytale

Once upon a time, there was a land called the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh. Founded in 1991, the unrecognized country was home to over 100,000 predominately Armenian people, until its violent dissolution at the hands of Azerbaijan in 2023. 

In There Was, There Was Not (2024)—named after the beginning of traditional Armenian fairytales—American-Armenian documentarian Emily Mkrtichian explores the lives of four Artsakh-born women fighting for their rights and, when war breaks out, fighting for their home. Premiering at the 2024 True/False Film Festival, There Was, There Was Not is set for a limited theatrical release by co-distributors Watermelon Pictures and Suncatcher Productions.

From its beginning, the film likens its story to a fairytale, the narrator—filmmaker Mkrtichian herself—explaining the meaning behind the title as she flips through a book of Armenian myths. The audience is then introduced to four women living in 2018 Artsakh: martial artist Sosé Balasanyan; politician Siranush Sargsyan; landmine disarmer Sveta Harutunyan; and women’s rights activist Gayane Hambardzumyan. As time passes, There Was, There Was Not seamlessly transitions from one woman’s life to the next, all the while war brews in the background.

Thoughtfully edited by American filmmaker Alexandria Bombach—director of Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All (2023)—with a warm, inviting color palette contrasting its dark subject matter, There Was, There Was Not prioritizes its protagonists’ stories for its entire 90-minute runtime, even when the sky is, quite literally, falling. 

Not only are Sosé, Siranush, Sveta, and Gayane the film’s focus, but also they are heartbreakingly humanized, showcased as their true, authentic, and complex selves while they navigate their professions pre- and post-war as well as their lives as mothers, daughters, and granddaughters. While the film never looks away from each woman’s moments of vulnerability, neither does it ignore its subjects’ courageous efforts in the face of violent injustice.

Never are these four women defined by their roles; rather, they are portrayed as four humans whose lives are violently disrupted. In a time when ethnic cleansing and mass displacement are tragically swept aside, There Was, There Was Not reminds us of the real human toll behind such inhumane acts.

Sound plays an important role in the documentary. While there are several scenes featuring emotionally-stirring music, silence is often used to juxtapose moments of peace with moments right before war comes knocking. This is most effective during the most climactic parts of the documentary, when Sosé strains to hear sirens as she prepares to join the army or when bombs rain down on Artsakh’s unsuspecting former capital city.

Ultimately, the central triumph of There Was, There Was Not is its ability of highlighting each woman’s unique way of bettering their lives and the lives of other women. Sosé trains to become the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal for Artsakh while Sveta works as one of the only women at the international organization HALO Trust, disarming dangerous landmines from a previous war. Siranush campaigns as the only woman candidate in 2019 while Gayane runs a woman’s shelter threatened by a conservative government.

While these women’s lives are far from a fairytale, they make do with what they have as they support their families and strive to better their internationally unrecognized home. When war breaks out and all hope seems lost, these women never stop fighting: Sosé takes up arms while Siranush leads protests and covers war crimes committed by Azerbaijani forces. Wherever there is resistance, there is a woman who never gives up.

Underscoring these women’s tireless efforts is their love for their respective families, cultural history, and indigenous homeland. Between scenes of working, organizing, and resisting, Sosé, Siranush, Sveta, and Gayane spend their time with family, friends, and nature, cooking, dancing, and storytelling. Love and life persists even in the darkest of hours. 

While the documentary ends on a more-than-bitter note—with the dissolution of Artsakh in 2023 and the systemic displacement of its entire Armenian population—hope is never lost. Rather, Artsakh lives on in the memories and stories of these four women; There Was, There Was Not argues that a better, more empathetic world is, in fact, possible.