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Ararat (2002)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
Atom Egoyan (written by)
Release Date:
4 September 2002 (France)
more
Tagline:
A Quest For Truth... Among Lies, Deception And Denial. more
Plot:
Interrogated by a customs officer, a young man recounts how his life was changed during the making of a film about the Armenian genocide claims. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
12 wins
&
9 nominations
more
NewsDesk:
(12 articles)
Interview: In "Adoration" of Atom Egoyan
(From GreenCine. 13 October 2009, 3:36 PM, PDT)
Atom Egoyan interview for "Adoration"
(From Movie Jungle. 22 May 2009)
(From GreenCine. 13 October 2009, 3:36 PM, PDT)
Atom Egoyan interview for "Adoration"
(From Movie Jungle. 22 May 2009)
User Comments:
600 Ancient Seeds Of Imperfection
more (175 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Simon Abkarian | ... | Arshile Gorky |
| Charles Aznavour | ... | Edward Sorayan |
 | Christopher Plummer | ... | David |
 | Arsinée Khanjian | ... | Ani |
| Setta Keshishian | ... | Dinner Guest / Wailing Mother |
 | David Alpay | ... | Raffi |
| Shant Srabian | ... | Dinner Guest #3 / Doctor #1 |
| Marie-Josée Croze | ... | Celia |
 | Elias Koteas | ... | Ali / Jevdet Bay |
| Brent Carver | ... | Philip |
 | Max Morrow | ... | Tony |
| Christie MacFadyen | ... | Janet |
| Dawn Roach | ... | Customs Officer |
 | Garen Boyajian | ... | Young Gorky |
| Lousnak Abdalian | ... | Gorky's Mother |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity and language.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
USA:115 min
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
New Zealand:R13 |
Germany:12 |
Argentina:13 |
Canada:14A (Canadian Home Video rating) |
Denmark:15 |
France:U |
Hong Kong:IIB |
Singapore:R(A) |
Spain:13 |
Sweden:15 |
Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) |
Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) |
UK:15 |
USA:R |
Brazil:14 |
Australia:MA |
Iceland:16
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Quotes:
Raffi:
But he thinks Turkey was at war with Armenia. Doesn't it bother you that he doesn't get the history?
Edward Saroyan: No, not really.
Raffi: I mean why didn't you explain to him that we were citizens, we were Turkish citizens. We had a right to be protected.
Edward Saroyan: Are you driving him home?
Raffi: Yeah.
Edward Saroyan: Huh. Take this.
[hands him dollar bills]
Edward Saroyan: Buy him a bottle of champagne. Let him think that he has done something special.
Raffi: Something special? I'm sorry, Mr Saroyan, I don't think I understand.
Edward Saroyan: Young man, do you know what still causes so much pain? It's not the people we lost, or the land. It's to know that we could be so hated. Who are these people, who could hate us so much? How can they still deny their hatred? And so hate us... hate us even more?
more
Edward Saroyan: No, not really.
Raffi: I mean why didn't you explain to him that we were citizens, we were Turkish citizens. We had a right to be protected.
Edward Saroyan: Are you driving him home?
Raffi: Yeah.
Edward Saroyan: Huh. Take this.
[hands him dollar bills]
Edward Saroyan: Buy him a bottle of champagne. Let him think that he has done something special.
Raffi: Something special? I'm sorry, Mr Saroyan, I don't think I understand.
Edward Saroyan: Young man, do you know what still causes so much pain? It's not the people we lost, or the land. It's to know that we could be so hated. Who are these people, who could hate us so much? How can they still deny their hatred? And so hate us... hate us even more?
more
Soundtrack:
Mystery
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (175 total)
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This film would have been more effective if the director presented the Armenian sequences as genuinely crafted extensive historical flashbacks (to show the extent of the massacres) with enhanced context and cinematography and acting performances, and provided more cohesive continuity, instead of using clichéd sound stage re-enactments discordantly interpolated throughout the underdeveloped and choppy present-day plot line.
I understand that Egoyan was trying to use an innovative method to capture and maintain the audience's attention - threading together a summarized record of the history of the Armenians and their massacre with poignant depictions of present-day "diaspora" Armenians in Canada struggling with identity, cultural, and ethnic crises, but, because of the gravity of the topic, he should have scaled back the innovation and instead focused on cinematically illustrating in enhanced historical detail Armenian history and the massacre, and broadened the overall acting performances by providing depth to the characters.
What Egoyan does demonstrate, either intentionally or intentionally, is that the self-victimization of the Armenian characters, and their explicit, unhindered, relentless focus on the Armenian massacre, impeded their ability to not only understand each other and their own individual crises, but their ability to reconcile with each other to preserve and defend and promote their culture and language (which they did retain) and traditions and history, to preserve and defend and promote their national identity and roots.
The Armenian characters, not even the mom and Saroyan the film director, did not realize their acculturation to the country they were living in (which happened to be Canada) dramatically minimized and virtually muted their ethnic connection to Turkey/Armenia.
They were so intent on trying to publicly prove the specific event of the massacre that they forgot about presenting Armenia's historology and culture and achievements, and, when Elias Koteas tried to discuss the historical context of the massacre, and Saroyan immediately dismissed him, Saroyan's reaction and unjustified explanation for the reaction negated the gravity and credibility of the massacre itself, and discredited the overall self-victimization of the Armenian characters.
The Armenians in the film had zero interest in learning about the cultural backdrop of their own ancestry (not even Rafi, he only wanted to validate his mother's stories because the thought of his mother as a liar was clearly more upsetting to him than any massacre), nor did they have any remote interest in celebrating and preserving their heritage or achievements, except to promote a painting and an autobiography that proved a massacre. Their sole interest was to pretend to be victims - despite being born and raised in Canada and acculturated in a Western lifestyle - and dismiss any attempts at examining their historical background and observing cultural traditions.
The cultural reference to the pomegranate was an astronomic miscalculation and indication that Egoyan himself is oblivious to history: the pomegranate, contrary to Armenian belief, first emerged as a fruit and as a cultural and culinary symbol in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and India, then spread as a cultural and culinary symbol throughout the entire Middle East, and Asia, Eurasia, Greece, Spain, Mexico, and beyond.
The symbolic meaning of the pomegranate was clear - pomegranates only grow in dry conditions, the Armenians only feel and grow and "progress" when they are void of and ignore their own history and culture (except language), pomegranates root and decay in wet conditions, the Armenians mentally decay when floods of critical questions and doubts and history in its full context inundate them.
Returning to the diaspora concept, none of the Armenians, except Rafi, exhibited any tangible desire to visit Turkey/Armenia, nor did they view their ethnic land as a desirable location to return to, an actual ancestral land where they could unite and rebuild their culture and nation. None of them, except the enigmatic non-Armenian David (Christopher Plummer) exhibited any reticence or discontent with being acculturated into Canadian/Western culture, none of them appeared to feel alienated or insulated from their own ethnic roots, not even the girlfriend, who was strictly frustrated because of Ani's trivialization and dismissal of her father's (and Ani's second husband's) death.
Nothing the Armenians did indicated they wanted a restoration of their original homeland and nation, that they vicariously related to their ancestral homeland, they engaged in any kind of ethnocummunal solidarity, and that meant the Armenians were not "diaspora" because diaspora indicates a nation scattered from an ancestral homeland that desires to re-unite and return to the homeland.
And, strangely, nothing the characters presented conclusively proved a "genocide" or even massacre occurred.
Egoyan's presentation of the film's strongest theme - memory versus facts versus the fabricated realities people con themselves into believing to make their lives bearable - indicated the massacre itself either never occurred or was exaggerated.
Saroyan asserts massive genocidal systematic killings occurred based on one eyewitness account, and Rafi's mom insists the killings occurred based on one painter's childhood, and both accounts are repudiated by Egoyan when he has Saroyan refuse to discuss the historical backdrop of Turkey in 1915, when he has Rafi's mother continuously exaggerate the painter's feelings and insist her husband was a hero and insist on dismissing the death of her second-husband out of guilt because she admittedly caused him to commit suicide (which correlates to Armenians feeling guilt about possibly instigating violence against themselves and being unable to defend themselves), when Egoyan has David (Plummer, in an Oscar-deserving performance) violate criminal laws by releasing Rafi despite the heroin in the film reel, when he has Rafi construct his lie to David in order to subconsciously reveal his version of the truth, and when he has Saroyan's film partner place Mount Ararat close to the city of Van which is geographically incorrect.
The sum total of which Egoyan directly illustrates to us that truth is subjective and virtually unknowable, which ironically means that, according to Egoyan's own thematic logic, it is unknowable whether or not an Armenian massacre occurred.