Tbilisi has never been a single-faith city. Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Jews and others built their sanctuaries within a few streets of one another, and the Armenian Apostolic church known as Karmir Avetaran belongs to that dense religious geography. The Armenian community has been part of the city's commercial, artistic and civic life over a long span of its history, and its churches are among the buildings that record that presence. The film approaches the church on its own terms: the distinct architectural vocabulary of the Armenian tradition, the form of the sanctuary, the carved cross-stones and inscriptions, and a liturgy sung in Armenian that differs audibly from the Georgian Orthodox rite performed nearby. It also situates the building in its neighbourhood, where the church stands among houses, courtyards and balconies characteristic of old Tbilisi. Rather than reciting a chronology, the programme observes a place of worship still used by the community that built it, and what it says about a plural city.
