( From IMDb ) The story takes place in 1930s Soviet Armenia . Arakel Aloyan is a naive peasant who left his homeland in Western Armenia after the Armenian Genocide of 1915 , having witnessed his village burnt and women raped . All the efforts of family members to persuade Arakel to accustom himself to a new life in Soviet Armenia are in vain whilst he suffers from nostalgia . After having a vision one sleepless night , Arakel crosses the Soviet-Turkish border , visits his village ( " to visit the tombs of my parents , to kiss the remaining walls of our village church " ) , and is interrogated by Kurdish cavalrymen who report that his village no longer exists . After returning , he 's captured by the NKVD ( Soviet state security ) and accused of " spying against the state . " He tragically ends his life in the exile train to Siberia
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Yearning (1990 film)