Ararat (2002)

Director:

Atom Egoyan

Writer:

Atom Egoyan (written by)

Release Date:

4 September 2002 (France)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

A Quest For Truth... Among Lies, Deception And Denial.

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.

Plot Keywords:

Armenian | Genocide | Armenian Genocide | Turkish | Death

Awards:

12 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

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

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity and language.

Runtime:

USA:115 min

Country:

Canada | France

Language:

English | Armenian | French | German | Turkish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

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:

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Company:

Alliance Atlantis Communications

Quotes:

Raffi: Were you serious about what you told him?
Ali, actor playing Jevdet Bey: What?
Raffi: That you don't think it happened?
Ali, actor playing Jevdet Bey: What, the genocide?
Raffi: Yeah.
Ali, actor playing Jevdet Bey: Are yuo gnna shoot me or something? Look, I never heard about any of this stuff when I was growing up. You know? I did some research for the part. From what I read there were deportations and lots of people died. Armenians and Turks. It was World War 1.
Raffi: But Turkey wasn't at war with the Armenians. I mean, just like Germany wasn't at war with the Jews. They were citizens. They were expecting to be protected. That scene you just shot was based on an eyewitness account. Your character Jevdet Bey, the only reason they put him in Van was to carry out the complete extermination of the Armenian population in Van. There were telegrams, there were communicators...
Ali, actor playing Jevdet Bey: Look I'm not saying that something didn't happen.
Raffi: Something...
Ali, actor playing Jevdet Bey: Look, I was born here. So were you right?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche (2004) (TV)

Soundtrack:

P.L.U.C.K.

600 Ancient Seeds Of Imperfection

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.