There Was, There Was Not (2025)

-Written by Kyle Bain. 

Four women from Artsakh are forced to face the harrowing reality of war. Some women decide to fight back, while others become overwhelmed by emotion, incapable of stomaching the atrocities that plague their existence and those with whom they are close. There Was, There Was Not is an intimate look at these four women, their families, and the series of unenviable decisions that they are forced to make during a time of the unthinkable. 

There Was, There Was Not is a paint-by-numbers in documentary filmmaking. Testimonials, point-of-view footage, and more help to guide viewers through the wartime documentary. There’s nothing new–except maybe the emotion, but that didn’t help (it actually made it worse). Four women remain front and center throughout the course of this documentary; some of them choose to get up and fight, while others remain sedentary and literally cry. I’m not claiming to understand their situation, nor do I believe that I would have the most remarkable response to the situation if I were forced to face it–but to film, for over an hour, women crying about their situation just isn’t necessary. I had great difficulty appreciating There Was, There Was Not as a result of the constant descent into emotional instability. Again, I’m not claiming that I would have responded in a more stoic fashion, but I didn’t need to watch someone cry over and over again for more than an hour. 

There’s not much else to say about There Was, There Was Not–as nothing inspired me, I struggled to remain focused, and I found very little about the film (if anything really) groundbreaking or even remotely original. 

At some point I’m going to view a documentary that will effectively be the straw that broke the camel’s back, the documentary that finally forces me down a path of documentary avoidance. While I’m not quite there yet, this sentiment replayed in my head throughout the course of my viewing of There Was, There Was Not. I often found it challenging to remain focused, as the content is, in many ways, redundant–the same thing we’ve seen so many times before. I’m inching closer to that aforementioned avoidance, and There Was, There Was Not did not help make a case for the contrary. 

Written & Directed by Emily Mkrtichian. 

Starring Gayane Hambardzumyan, Svetlana Harutunyan, Siranush Sargsyan, etc. 

2.5/10 = AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS