Sweeping Against the Winds

‘Sweeping Yerevan’ is the warm portrait of Marina, a woman who travels 40 km every night to sweep the streets of Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, while dodging cars and putting her life at risk, in order to provide for her blind husband, live-in mother-in-law, unemployed son, and two young children. By day, she mends clothes for clients and works as a janitor at the local music school to cover all of her family’s expenses. With few options for her generation since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the closure of factories, Marina nurtures education and musical skills in her children, hoping that they will have a different future from her own.