Sarik Andreasyan’s Earthquake, a dramatized recreation of the devastating Spitak earthquake that hit northern Armenia in December 1988 killing 25,000 people and leaving half a million homeless— has been chosen as Armenia's submission for best foreign-language film Oscar consideration, according to Armenian National Film Academy, Arka News Agency reported.
The $3 million disaster movie was produced by Moscow-based Mars Media, headed by Ruben Dishdishyan, the founder of Russia's top independent production company Central Partnership in 1995. He stepped down five years ago.
Earthquake tells the story of the massive quake that destroyed more than 300 communities and killed 25,000 people. Focused around the story of two young men, Andrei Berezhnov and Robert Melkonyan, whose fates were already intertwined by an earlier tragedy — a car crash caused by Andrei that killed Robert's parents — the film brings them together in the same rescue squad as they struggle to cope with a disaster that eclipses their own personal stories.
