Armenia Uncovered, Journey into a small nation with big surprises. Thousand-year-old churches, the world’s oldest shoe, and mouth-watering Jingyalov bread all in the same place. Travel through the ancient streets and towns of the world’s hidden gem, Armenia.

Armenia Uncovered

“Armenia Uncovered” documents one of the UK’s finest entertainers and internationally acclaimed Award-Winning Comedy Pianist Kev Orkian’s fun-filled journey to Armenia, a country with unbelievable hospitality, rich history, and unique culture. Among those he meets is French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour, Armenia’s greatest footballer Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and pop-sensation Sirusho.

With over 10m Armenians living around the world, it’s time to revisit our proud nation and discover what makes us who we are. ARMENIA UNCOVERED is a fun-filled, feature-length film about Armenia – it’s culture, rich history and incredible citizens – hosted by British-Armenian comedian Kev Orkian. Kev will meet famous Armenians from around the world, and travel home to uncover a proudly independent nation, now emerging from 70 years of Soviet rule. This is ARMENIA UNCOVERED.

The Story So Far

ARMENIA UNCOVERED is an ambitious project that we’ve been working on for over 12 months.

Our goal is to share Armenia with the whole world, showing what it means to be Armenian and what modern Armenia is like today.

We’ve spoken with THOUSANDS of  the Armenian diaspora around the world to uncover exactly what it is people want to see in a film about Armenia today. Using your input and our vision, we’ll give the world (and ourselves) the deep understanding of just who we are.

The Team

Host: Kev Orkian is without question one of the UK’s finest entertainers and an internationally acclaimed comedy pianist.

Director: Andy Simon is an award-winning Australian / Armenian journalist and television producer.

Guide: Ani Mouradian knows a lot about wine-making and Armenian culture and she will guide us on our journey throughout Armenia. 

Together, we are passionate about making this film and are determined to introduce the beauty of Armenia and its people to the world.

It’s tough living abroad as Armenians and not knowing much about our homeland, and with an estimated 10 MILLION Armenians in the diaspora, there are many more who feel the same.

By supporting our film, ARMENIA UNCOVERED, we can share our heritage and culture with the world in an entertaining and informative documentary.

The Documentary

In a first for Armenia and the diaspora living across the globe, this documentary will uncover our nation for all the world to see.

In the film, we’ll be sitting down with some of Armenia’s most influential people to chat about what being Armenian means to them.

We’ve also asked thousands of you, the Armenians of the world, to tell us what you’d like to see in the documentary. Below is a little taste of your favourite things, which will play an important part in ARMENIA UNCOVERED…

And many more we plan to include:

  • Sirusho (singer / songwriter)
  • The Beautified Project (pop / rock band)
  • Lilit Hovhannisyan (singer / songwriter)
  • Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Armenian football captain & Manchester United midfielder) 
  • Tereza Gevorgyan (opera singer)
  • Artur Aleksanyan (Olympic wrestling Gold medal winner 2016)
  • Levon Aronian (chess grand master)
  • Vahan Khachatryan (Fashion design guru)

Food and Culture

Food is close to everyone’s heart and it has been THE most talked about and requested segment to include in our film.

Food plays a large role in Armenian hospitality which is also fundamental to our unique culture. We’ll be uncovering everything there is to know about Armenian food by exploring and sampling a huge array of fresh produce at Yerevan’s food market and joining forces with celebrity chef Levon Kaprelian who takes Kev on a culinary journey of Armenian cuisine. 

“What would a trip to Armenia be, without cooking and eating mountains of food,” Kev laughs. 

Kev also volunteers to help Levon cook a delicious 5-star gourmet Armenian banquet to help celebrate a good friend’s birthday in Yerevan.

While Kev claims to know a thing or two about home-cooking, he’s got no idea what pressure Levon will put him under in the kitchen, rolling Dolmas, preparing Manti, slicing delicious Basturma and many more delicacies… Will he get it ready before the guests arrive?!?

Vernissage Market in the heart of Yerevan is the perfect place to uncover everything there is to know about what makes Armenians SO Armenian. So it will be here amongst the handicrafts, paintings, ceramics, jewellery, books and the local market sellers, that Kev will meet up with the well-known Armenian comedian Sergey Sargsyan for a quick lesson in what it means to be a REAL Armenian.

The People in Armenia Uncovered

Kev catches up with business leader Madlene Minassian and her husband – top jazz musician Arthur Ispirian – at their home in Yerevan to find out what life is like in Armenia today. The couple returned to Armenia with their two sons after years living in California.

Kev catches up with another Armenian jazz legend, Forsh Gevrokian, at his uber-hip club and gets a low down on Yerevan’s incredible music scene. 

The Genocide Museum and Memorial

No trip to Armenia is complete without visiting the Genocide Memorial and Museum. 

“My great-grandparents were killed in the Genocide and we need to share these tragic stories with the world, so they are never forgotten,” Kev says.

Mt Ararat and the monastery at Khor Virap

This is the birthplace of Christianity in Armenia – the first nation in the world to adopt the Christian religion for all its people in 301 AD.

This spectacular monastery sits at the foot of Mt Ararat and has been carefully preserved for centuries at Khor Virap and it has a very special story involving “Gregory the Illuminator” who was imprisoned there for 14 years.