Narrative
Մենք ենք, մեր սարերը
Not translated into English
Hrant Matevosyan · 1962
Synopsis
Four shepherds of the Armenian mountains, Ichkhan, Avak, Pavlé and Zaven, find a few apparently ownerless sheep, slaughter some and eat them. They belonged to their neighbour Revaz, whom they compensate as best they can. But a young policeman from the city, convinced that there are no small crimes, opens a full investigation, and runs up against the shepherds, who argue, dodge and disarm him with their talk.
Context
The author was twenty-seven and was proofreading for a literary journal when this text appeared, the year after his debut; his first collection would come only in 1967. Written during the Khrushchev thaw, it mocks the Soviet bureaucratic apparatus without saying so. In 1969 Henrik Malyan made a film of it, from a screenplay by the author, with Frunzik Mkrtchian, whose lines have passed into everyday speech.
Who it is for
Short, in Eastern Armenian, with the shepherds' speech taking up most of the space. The inquiry serves as a frame, not as a plot.
Prizes and reception
One of the classic texts of Armenian prose of its century, best known through its 1969 adaptation, regarded as a cult comedy.