There’s a good chance that audiences will ponder what truly goes into that glass of wine they’re sipping after experiencing SOMM: Cup of Salvation. The thought-provoking new documentary, directed by Jason Wise, provides a deep dive into the primal origins and innate passion for wine and how it continues “to shape the very fabric of human existence.”
The documentary follows a father and daughter as they embark on a mission to revive the ancient grapes of their homeland in Armenia. That proves to be extremely challenging for it requires them to go into the post-soviet infrastructure of their country, then harvest grapes — during a war — and venture forth to market their wine globally.
Audiences can expect to experience a whirlwind adventure in SOMM: Cup of Salvation, learning about wine, how wine influenced and shaped cultures and diplomacy, and Armenian and Iranian war-torn challenges. Ultimately, Wise delivers an intriguing, fascinating tale here, one filled with heart and suspense. It is among the finest storytelling you will experience from a documentary in recent memory. Director Jason Wise and revered winemaker Vahe Keushguerian shared more with MovieWeb in this exclusive interview.
A Story Steeped in Tradition
“My father wants to build a bunker cellar. I’m like, will we need it?” muses Aimee Keushguerian in SOMM: Cup of Salvation, more than hinting that she and her father, Vahe, have embarked on a mind-bending, sometime sketchy odyssey to revive precious ancient grapes in a war-torn region around Armenia and Iran.
“I’ve always been very interested, borderline obsessed, with history,” noted Jason Wise of why it was important for him to tell this story. “I’ve made wine films now for 10 years and every single time I make a movie about wine, I try to make it about something bigger than wine.”
He went on to say that he initially set out to make a film about wine and religion and the origin of how wine sits at the center of humanity. Then he met Vahe Keushguerian, a longtime winemaker, during one of his trips to Armenia.
“You have to understand,” Wise added, “that Armenia is one of the most ancient countries in the world, one of the first Christian nations, and obviously Christianity has a lot to do with wine, so do all religions, frankly. I met Vahe and I realized there was somebody out there as absolutely insane as I was when it came to wine and history, and willing to throw your body at a project you believe in.”
Wise was so inspired by Vahe that he changed his entire project, “to telling the story of somebody reclaiming an entire country’s history, and then of course what happens with Iran. So, It’s been a four or five year process,” Wise said, “and Vahe was really the cement for the bricks on why I decided to follow through with this process.”
A Winemaker’s Challenges
Vahe Keushguerian has long been an entrepreneur and staunch advocate for Armenian wine. He was born in Syria to Armenian parents and raised in Lebanon, before eventually heading to the United States and becoming the founder and CEO of WineWorks. Joining forces with Wise seemed like a twist of fate, as Keushguerian has been on his own wine-related journey.
“I came to Armenia 13 years ago and we kind of restarted the whole industry,” Keushguerian said of the wine region, which had been abandoned, “but apparently it was a gold mine, and I didn’t realize it was a gold mine. I thought it was intriguing, then it turned out we had all these varieties [of grapes].”
In the decade that followed, the entire wine industry shifted, as did films about wine, and the winemaker would release wine during very specific monthly periods. But after researching the surrounding areas, particularly Iran and Turkey, he realized that the grapevines were part of a group of countries that shared a similar history. “I call it the historic world, not the old world or the new world, but the historic world. It’s a few thousand years older than Western Europe, and Iran is one of them,” Keushguerian said. He continued:
“And Iran, being illegal to drink, it was a little bit more exciting […] Then three years into the movie, Jason realized there was a narrative story to be told with Iran, so he called me and says, ‘Can you pull off making Iranian wine?’ And that was basically the stimulus for me to say, ‘Let me make some phone calls.’”
Three days later, Jason Wise received a phone call from Keushguerian saying that he could pull it off. But he’d need help from his daughter. The engrossing documentary tracks how father and daughter embark on harvesting the grapes and making the wine, all the while traveling back and forth across military checkpoints and braving tensions.
“It wasn’t like I found the grapes then went back and said, ‘Okay now film me,’” Keushguerian said. “They were filming while we were trying to find grapes. Slowly, we found vineyards, we found a merchant, we found the farmers, this and that.”
Putting a Face to Armenia and Iran
In addition to Vahe and Aimee Keushguerian, the documentary also features Carole Meredith, Dustin Wilson, Armen Sarkissian, Paul Hobbs, Boris Gasparyan, Armen Khachaturian, Jonathan Alpeyrie, Steve Matthiasson, Moe Momtazi, Naseem Momtazi, Steven Spurrier, Andres Roseberg, DLynn Proctor, and Sabato Sagaria. Wise also produced the film with his partner Christina Wise. Music from Alex Mansour captures various moods fittingly.
Director Jason Wise admits that the filming process was “a very organic process making this film, starting off with a plan and then ending up ‘following the river,’ sort of” he said. “We filmed during a war, and it sort of changed me.” He noted the war Armenia was having with Azerbaijan at the time and pointed out the difference of Iran as a people and Iran as a perception.
“The chance to make a film where people can see faces and passion behind these BBC headlines,” he added, “and to be able to see these ancient peoples, not as ‘ancient,’ but doing something today that is hopeful and important, that had a lot to do with why we stuck through the film. I would like Armenians and Persians to get some credit, other than genocide and political strife.”
“I hope this doesn’t sound too grand, but being from the Midwest, the first time I ever heard the word ‘Armenian’ was in a seventh-grade class when I was learning about genocide,” explained Wise. “The only reason I was taught that they exist is because people were trying to get rid of them. And it’s always bothered me that that’s how I learned and that’s all I knw.” He continued:
“My whole goal with this was to humanize these people who are some of the most important ancient craftsmen and the greatest winemakers that have probably ever lived. Herodotus wrote about the Armenians. Conversely, the Persians, if you grew up in a regular place in America, you look at Iranians and you just think ‘terrorism’ or something, you don’t think about a broader, greater culture. Iran’s a first-world country. Nobody knows this, they see these Netflix shows and they just think it looks like the middle of the desert in Morocco.”
“I hope people leave this film, and they see people and faces when they talk about these cultures. I really do hope I was able to use wine as the MacGuffin in this film to tell a hopeful human story,” continued Wise. “I hope now when they hear about the war that’s going on with Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan, and these countries that sound so foreign but are so important to the evolution of humanity, I hope they see them as people. Personally, I hope Armenia gets a bunch of tourism. This is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and nobody thinks about it at all.”
Thanks to this film, we’re thinking about it now. SOMM: Cup of Salvation is playing in select theaters; watch this space for information about a wider release in the near future. You can find showtimes and more information at SOMM Films.
