Musicians is a nearly wordless look at the diverse strands of music found on the streets and in the clubs of Armenia today, and at the musicians who create it out of chaos. Percussionists perched in bombed-out buildings, accordionists in subway stops, brass bands roaming ancient streets, even ravers and DJs in strobe–lit dance clubs: the film captures the full range of the sounds-and the sights-of its nation's musical expression. For the director, an Armenian dissident jailed in 1975 and exiled in 1978, Musicians reveals not just the songs, but the hope within them. Askarian said, "Despite the destruction, the disintegration, the humiliation, the social catastrophe of the war....despite the poverty, the betrayal....despite the annihilation of all the bases of life-the music sounds, and how it sounds! Higher and higher, over the sorrow and the pain! It...awakens a hope in the abandoned."