Armenian Genocide - United Press International

By Claude Salhani - From the Life & Mind Desk - 10/11/2002

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) - "Ararat" is a film about the Armenian genocide of 1915. Then again, "Ararat" is an oeuvre by filmmaker Atom Egoyan, so it's not that clear cut, as his work tends to be.

This is in fact a film about a film about the Armenian genocide. Egoyan never takes the easy road when it comes to story telling. As a friend who is familiar with Egoyan's work commented after a viewing earlier this week, "You need to see it again before you really grasp it."

Given the topic, even the film's director agrees that this is not a simple subject, nor is it simple filmmaking.

"I decided to create a dysfunctional film-within-the-film in order to generate the drama in the present day," said Egoyan.

Egoyan chose the word "dysfunctional." I opted for "complicated."

Aside from the film within the film, there are also a number of smaller stories within the film, that somehow all tie in to the main story at the end. Such, for example, is the story of Arshile Gorky, the famous Armenian
painter who committed suicide.

But the complexity of the films means you really need to pay attention. Regardless, the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that this might well be the correct away to approach such a sensitive issue.

The Armenian genocide -- much as any genocide -- it not an easy subject to deliberate, especially in a film. By their very nature, genocides are obscene; and bringing slaughter, hatred, rape and human butchery to the silver screen is no small feat. Especially when you need to make it "acceptable" to a Western movie-going public.

In this case, Egoyan does it in a most provocative manner, although one gets the feeling that at times, he does not want to deal with all the harsh facts, and tries to somewhat hide them within the film that is being shot in his film.

"This is a story of denial," Egoyan told United Press International, during an interview this week in Washington.

The danger in denial is that it doesn't allow for a moral resolution and it gives rise and opportunity for the genocide to happen again. As Egoyan points out in "Ararat," the fact that the Armenian genocide occurred and passed by almost unnoticed by history led Adolf Hitler to offer a chilling justification for his murder of millions of Jews: "After all," commented the Fuehrer, "who today remembers the extermination of the Armenians?"

The obvious question is indeed raised. Could preventing the Armenian genocide have in any way prevented the Holocaust? No one, of course, can answer the question with any authority, but suffice to say that knowledge of the Armenian and Jewish holocausts did not prevent future slaughters from taking place. Since then, fanatical Khmer Rouge killers have turned farms into killing fields in Cambodia, innocent blood has been spilled throughout the former Yugoslav republics, and people died by the thousands in the
Rwandan massacres, among others.

But the difference here is denial, as Arsinée Khanjian, Egoyan's attractive actress wife, and co-star in the film, adequately points out.

"The difference with the Holocaust is that, with the exception of a fringe element, it has been accepted," she told UPI.

While the Holocaust and other such atrocities have been largely recognized, the same cannot be said of the Armenian catastrophe amid continuing denials, stressed Egoyan and Khanjian.

The denial comes mainly from Turkey, the country that committed the massacres in 1915, killing about a million people -- close to two-thirds of the entire population of Armenia.

In "Ararat," Egoyan overcomes the question of how to explain the background of the conflict and the ensuing tragedy by casting veteran actor Christopher Plummer as a customs officer who discovers, along with the audience, facts about the Armenian genocide that few people in the West know about.

The other star of "Ararat" is legendary French singer and actor Charles Aznavour, who like the director, is of Armenian descent. Aznavour portrays the film's director, "Edward," who is shooting his own version of "Ararat." Here, the past and present seem to blend together, which was Egoyan's intended aim, "to generate the drama in the present day."

But why tell the story today, almost a century after the tragic events?

Egoyan and actress wife Khanjian --like most Armenians today -- have either lost close relatives in the massacres, or know someone who has. Egoyan told UPI that he and his wife were inspired to produce the film following a question posed by their 6 year-old son a few years ago: "Did the Turks ever say they were sorry?" asked the lad, innocently.

This moved them to believe they needed to produce "a sort of a legacy" for the next generation, said Egoyan.

"Recognition is the moral course of affairs," said Egoyan.

Recognition by the Turkish government, that is.

"Their government has not allowed them the privilege of understanding their own history," adds the Armenian filmmaker.

"Sixty-five million Turks do not have access to the most natural resource that they have, which is their sense of history," added Khanjian.

"They cannot read their history books, as they should have been written, because regimes over and over have eliminated anything that Turks could have access to, to be part of the present in a responsible way."

With "Ararat," Egoyan gives us a powerful film that will, without a doubt, open the door to a portion of history that some tried hard to keep shut.

It's a powerful message, well worth seeing.

(The Culture Vulture is a column written by UPI's Life & Mind editor, and reflects on current trends, issues and events. Comments may be sent to claude@upi.com.)