Ararat (2002)

Interrogated by a customs officer, a young man recounts how his life was changed during the making of a film about the Armenian genocide.

Director:

Atom Egoyan

Writer:

Atom Egoyan

Stars:

Charles Aznavour, Brent Carver, Eric Bogosian

12 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Simon Abkarian	...	Arshile Gorky
Charles Aznavour	...	Edward Saroyan
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

Storyline

People tell stories. In Toronto, an art historian lectures on Arshile Gorky (1904 -1948), an Armenian painter who lived through the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. A director invites the historian to help him include Gorky's story in a film about the genocide and Turkish assault on the town of Van. The historian's family is under stress: her son is in love with his step-sister, who blames the historian for the death of her father. The daughter wants to revisit her father's death and change that story. An aging customs agent tells his son about his long interview with the historian's son, who has returned from Turkey with canisters of film. All the stories connect.

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Plot Keywords:

armenian | armenian genocide | armenia | art history professor | armenian flag | 

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Taglines:

In a world full of denial, how do you determine who's telling the truth?

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Christopher Plummer would later reunite with director Atom Egoyan on the film Remember (2015), which also deals with human memory and genocide.

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Quotes

David: There's no way of confirming that a single word that you've told me is true.

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Crazy Credits

Closing disclaimers: 1) The historical events in this film have been substantiated by holocaust scholars, national archives, and eyewitness accounts, including that of Clarence Ussher. 2) To this day, Turkey continues to deny the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

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Connections

Featured in Edge Codes.com: The Art of Motion Picture Editing (2004)

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Soundtracks

P.L.U.C.K.
(Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers)
Performed by System of a Down
Written by Daron Malakian (as Malakian) / Serj Tankian (as Tankian) / Shavo Odadjian (as Odajian) / John Dolmayan (as Dolmayan)
DDevil Music (ASCAP)/ System of Down (ASCAP)/ Sony/ ATV Tunes LLC,
All rights on behalf of DDevil Music, System of A Down & Sony/ ATV Tunes LLC
Administered by SONY/ ATV Music Publishing, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37202
All rights reserved. Used by Permission

User Reviews

Nothing extraordinary

At the first time when I saw `Ararat', I was strongly impressed. To say the truth there were some parts of the film which were ununderstandable for me, after I watched that movie for several times and could understand it at all and create my own viewpoint.The scenario was a real chaos, and the characters were not chosen right. The example of this is Raffi (a puny guy). Finally, I think Egoyan tried to introduce genocide in some way that the audience that knows nothing about armenians and armenian genocide could understand and be sorry for armenians. However, I don't think he really succeeded in this stuff, because Egoyan created this film from the standpoint turks are bad human kind. It's wrong in some points. I agree that at that time of history, there was an awfull religion-fanaticism and turks did awfull things, but their generation is not as responsible for that as we suppose. On the other hand I am sure there was a real genocide and generally all armenians are sure, cause of our ancecstors stories. And I am sure no one could socialise with the people who could do that. However I am not going to create my future on the idea there was an armenian genocide and turks are murders. This is a wrong point of view. Of course, there is a pain and the pain will always be there in the armenian-man's heart, as our mothers were raped, our fathers were killed, our brothers and sisters were procured from our mothers abdomen and killed not even born. But armenians should live by the future, not by the past and so must do turks. Noone is guilty, maybe just some persons who were alive at that period of time but not now.

Details

Official Sites:

egofilmarts.com [Canada] Miramax

Country:

Canada France

Language:

English Armenian French German Turkish

Release Date:

6 December 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Araratas

Filming Locations:

Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$15,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$211,130, 17 November 2002

Gross USA:

$1,555,959

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,743,336

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alliance Atlantis Communications, Serendipity Point Films, Ego Film Arts

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1