There Was, There Was Not

What does it mean to survive, even after your country is wiped off the map? In the small Republic of Artsakh, we meet four women—a social worker and a freedom fighter among them—who bear the scars of Azerbaijan and Armenia’s violent invasion of their homeland…only for war to arrive at their doorstep yet again.THERE WAS, THERE WAS NOT follows four women living in the Republic of Artsakh—an unrecognized country reckoning with the aftermath of one war while on the precipice of another. In the midst of this uncertainty, four women build a life with the hope of making their home a better place. When war breaks out again, what began as an observational meditation on women’s roles after conflict becomes an urgent and intimate record of their lives interrupted once again by war. From taking up arms on the frontlines to fleeing their homes as refugees, each woman’s life changes irrevocably. Their journey becomes the myth of a homeland lost forever and the power of story to keep it alive.