PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025 REVIEW! Imagine you’re making a documentary, and about a third of the way into production, global events take over and force you to create an entirely new movie. Such is the case with documentarian Sareen Hairabedian’s feature film My Sweet Land.
One of the greatest horrors of the early 19th century was the Armenian Genocide. After almost being obliterated, the resilient Armenian people declared their independence in 1991, and in 2008, they celebrated their progress with a massive wedding of 700 couples to affirm the new Armenian government and instill a commitment to grow the homeland by encouraging marriage and family life. Growing a new country is difficult when neighbors don’t want you there. In 2018, Azerbaijan escalated its conflict with Armenia, aiming to reclaim the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region.
My Sweet Land takes place in 2020 as tensions have subsided with Azerbaijan. Filmmaker Sareen Hairabedian takes her camera and follows an eleven-year-old boy, Vreg, one of the children born from the mass wedding in 2008. Vreg lives with his parents and brother in the rural city of Artsakh. Just over the hillside is the Azerbaijani army, preparing to invade Artsakh.
Hairabedian presents a world foreign to many Westerners, where the prospects of war and invasion are those of dystopian, sci-fi fare. But for Vreg, war feels inevitable. At school, the teacher talks about how map lines, particularly those of Armenia, are never set in stone.
“…we see a live transformation of a young boy forced into a world of constant war…”
Before you know it, war with Azerbaijan breaks out, and Vreg, his mother, and his brother are sent to live with family in Armenia while his dad stays behind to fight for “My Sweet Land.” Vreg soon learns a quick life lesson, turning from a young pacifist to a patriot for Armenia. However, the process takes an emotional and psychological toll on young Vreg.
I mentioned in the introduction that My Sweet Land was supposed to be a very different documentary. Filmmaker Sareen Hairabedian spent a month interviewing families from the Great Wedding to tell a story about the children born from that event. But fate had a different story.
Instead, she tells the story of children born into a world of uncertainty and instability. Through Vreg, we see a live transformation of a young boy forced into a world of constant war as he is exiled to Armenia during the war only to return (spoiler alert) to his home now occupied by the Azerbaijani army with Russian peacekeeper sent into the enforce a flimsy peace treaty.
The sad part of a new country is that when war breaks, the age limit for soldiers is suddenly lowered. Again, spoiler alert: Vreg’s family faces a tragic turn after the cameras stop rolling.
My Sweet Land is a harrowing story of not just a boy but of the youth in Artsakh. Every thought and emotion of Armenian youth is felt in the eyes of young Vreg. It’s hard not to realize how lucky we are in the States and how much we take for granted our freedom (no, we can never have enough), but I also feel great sympathy for a boy and his people on the other side of the world.
My Sweet Land screened at the 2025 Palm Springs International Film Festival.
"…Growing a new country is difficult when neighbors don't want you there."
