In 2020, simmering tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted in the border region of Nagorno- Karabakh. Shoghakat Vardanyan’s brother Soghomon disappeared on the seventh day of the six-week-long war, leaving behind only the designation “1489”— the number assigned to “body of an individual missing in action.” Vardanyan’s response was to use her phone camera to film every moment of the agonizing wait that ensued. She documents her parents and herself as they search for answers, interviewing soldiers who survived, desperately clinging to hope, and their grief as hope begins to fade. Through raw, intimate moments, 1489 confronts the human cost of war through one family’s unwavering love, quest for closure, and finally, their acceptance of a devastating truth. This deeply personal film is by a first-time filmmaker. PB