The Black Garden review – haunting study of growing up in war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh

Alexis Pazoumian’s documentary follows Samvel and Avo, two preteen boys whose lives will be unavoidably scarred by brutal conflict After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, a decades-long territorial dispute exploded in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, as its largely Armenian population fought against countless military campaigns from the Azerbaijani army.

Shot over the course of three eventful years, which culminated in the surrender of Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist…