In 1948, decades after fleeing Armenia to the US as a child, Charlie (played by the film’s writer and director, Michael A. Goorjian) returns in the hope of finding a connection to his roots, but what he finds instead is a country crushed under Soviet rule. Despite befriending a Soviet official’s wife (Nelli Uvarova), he gets thrown in jail as a suspicious interloper.

Languishing behind the prison walls, Charlie falls into despair until he discovers that he can see into a nearby apartment from his cell window — the home of a temperamental painter named Tigran (Hovik Keuchkerian) who also happens to work as a prison guard. As his life unexpectedly becomes entwined with the man’s, he begins to see that the true spirit of his homeland is alive in its passionate people. Warm and packed with gentle humor, Amerikatsi celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the bonds that unite us all.

Armenian and Russian with English subtitles