Ararat - ArmeniaNow.com review
By Peter Eichstaedt - 15th November, 2002.
Atom Egoyan is to be congratulated for his amazing film, Ararat, which was premiered in Yerevan in late September. It is a film about the Armenian genocide and it is long over due. Hopefully it will increase and expand awareness worldwide as to the awful suffering that occurred at the hands of the Turks.
The film is about the making of a film about the Armenian genocide. The story moves effortlessly between the actors' lives on and off the set, and a host of characters in and around the making of the movie.
Ararat is about denial. First and foremost, the Turkish and global denial of the Armenian genocide. There is denial of the realities of the relationships, past and present, between the characters in the film. There is denial among the countries of the world of the realities of the Armenian history and culture, and it is this denial that the film addresses.
It was difficult to watch the 18-year-old Raffi, played by David Aplay, seek a connection to his distant past by making a clandestine trip to the western side of Ararat and to the historical chapel which he says is where it all began.
What troubles me is that the film itself is an example of a larger denial - a denial of the reality that is Armenia today. Not one frame, not one scene was shot in Armenia. When I first saw the film, I was dumfounded at this omission. When Raffi goes on what we learn is a personal journey to find his roots, he goes to Turkey! Why not Armenia? Why not Yerevan? He never sets foot in Armenia. The closest we come to seeing anything remotely related to what is Armenia is a large, wall-size photograph of Mount Ararat viewed from the Armenian side and it is only the backdrop for a set.
This curiosity is an example of the larger problem that exists among the Armenian Diaspora, primarily those in North America. The fact that they live in these countries is because their grandparents and great grandparents fled Turkey because of the genocide. Their roots, ancestral and psychological, exist in Turkey, not Armenia.
Since their primary psychological connection with "Armenia" is with the genocide, this explains the Diaspora obsession with obtaining global recognition of the genocide. I fully support this effort and have and will continue to work for it. But too often this recognition becomes the most important thing and pushes much more important issues for Armenia to the back of the line. The reality is that even if the United Nations adopts a resolution recognizing the genocide, nothing will change in Armenia.
The economy will not improve. The education system will not improve. Factories will not reopen. Streets will not be paved. The water system will not improve. The telephone system will not improve. Pensions will not be paid. The best and brightest among the young people of Armenia will continue to seek their futures outside the country. Nothing will change. Those who live in Armenia, the real Armenia, know this. But those who don't live here don't understand this because they live in another reality.
I have lived and worked in Armenia for two years. It has been difficult at times, but I have enjoyed every minute. But, it is all too clear to me that the depth of the denial of the Armenian reality among the Diaspora is staggering. Most think of Armenia in some glowing, mythological terms, as if it is some visionary Garden of Eden.
One scene in the movie illustrates this point. The film-within-the film's director, played by French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour, sits in the back of a white limousine, dressed in a white suit and is teary-eyed as he nibbles on pomegranate seeds, saying they remind him of his heritage. What? This typifies an unfortunate attitude Diaspora has about Mother Armenia. Living in comfort and relative luxury in foreign countries, they sigh a lot about their poor friends and relatives. Meanwhile, those who live in Armenia choke on the bitter fruit of reality every day.
I have a modest proposal. Each person who calls himself an Armenian and who does not live in Armenia must make a sacred vow to visit at least once. No. Not just visit. Live here. Six months. Maybe a year. This single infusion of people, talent, and perhaps money will do more to change the future of Armenia than 1,000 movies.
(Peter Eichstaedt is a writer and editor and directs a journalism program based in Yerevan.)