Ararat (film)

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Movie
German title Ararat
Original title Ararat
Country of production Canada , France
original language English ,
Armenian ,
French ,
German
Publishing year 2002
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Atom Egoyan
script Atom Egoyan
production Atom Egoyan,
Robert Lantos
music Mychael Danna
camera Paul Sarossy
cut Susan Shipton
occupation

Ararat is a film drama by the Canadian - Armenian film director Atom Egoyan from 2002 , which deals with the difficulties of personal and community remembrance of the Armenian genocide and its cinematic portrayal.

Origin of the title

The title refers to the biblical Mount Ararat , which has a special place in the minds of the Armenians . In the early days, the highest mountain in the region was considered a mystical place; the Ark to have landed here. Later it became the national symbol for the (Christian) Armenian people. Today the mountain is in Turkey , but is still featured in the coat of arms of the Republic of Armenia .

The levels of action

As in most of Egoyan's films, Ararat is also about the various possibilities of telling story (s) - here especially with the means of cinema. The very complex, interwoven plot has different threads. There is Raffi (David Alpay), who traveled to Turkey to make a film there. On his return to Canada he is stopped at the border by the customs officer David (Christopher Plummer), who suspects drugs in the supposedly undeveloped film roles. The interrogation leads to a very fundamental conversation about Armenia and the suppressed genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

The second film level revolves around Raffi's mother Ani (played by Egoyan's wife Arsinée Khanjian), who works as an art historian with the Armenian-born American painter Arshile Gorky . As a child , he escaped from Van (Turkey) in 1915 as one of the few male survivors of his family to America, where he became one of the most important exponents of US painting in the 1930s and 1940s. Ani is called in as an expert on a film made by aging writer and producer Edward Saroyan (Charles Aznavour). In this film, the (authentic) events of 1915 , based on the script of the author Rouben (Eric Bogosian), are processed into a melodramatic history ham in Hollywood-style, regardless of historical authenticity. At the same time, Egoyan stages touching scenes in this film in the film, which is based on the recordings of the American missionary Clarence Ussher - played by Martin Harcourt (played by Bruce Greenwood) - about the unimaginable horror that the Armenians suffered during the genocide.

Another level arises in the tension between Raffi, his stepsister Celia (Marie-Josée Croze), with whom he has a relationship, and Ani. Raffi's father was an Armenian terrorist who died in the 1970s in the struggle for Turkey to recognize the genocide. Celia's father (Ani's second husband) had never been able to stand up to the memory of this hero and was killed while hiking with Ani (it remains unclear whether it was suicide, an accident or whether Ani pushed him off the cliff). Celia's hatred of her mother goes so far that, in an act of desperation, she damages a famous picture of Arshile Gorky, which plays a central role in Ani's life, with a knife and has to go to prison for it. - It is about the portrait of his mother, which Gorky (played by Simon Abkarian in the film) never finished and repeatedly painted over; this story and the possible reasons for his suicide are also discussed in the film.

Finally, the story of the Turkish-Canadian actor Ali (Elias Koteas), who plays the villain in the film in the film (Jevdet Bey - again a historical figure whose misdeeds are portrayed authentically), is added as a further plot level . He has a relationship with Philip (Brent Carver), the son of the customs officer David , who cannot come to terms with this for various (including religious) reasons.

In the end it turns out that the film, for which Raffi allegedly has footage from Turkey in his luggage as an assistant, has already premiered on the day of his return to Canada. Still, David releases Raffi; At the same time, he ends his professional life, retires and makes up with his son. In the film roles, however, was - drugs; this in turn could have been smuggled by the Turks into the tin cans with which Raffi visited Mount Ararat in Turkey.

Reviews

According to the lexicon of international film , Ararat is “not a historicizing drama, but an artful reflection on difficulties and the necessity of remembering, whereby the intelligent and decisive film sometimes expects bitter truths.” Cinema saw the film as “a complex reflection on the unresolved trauma of a forgotten people "and as a" harrowing work on a forgotten chapter of European history. "

Roger Ebert asks himself whether the film wasn't too close to the heart of the director, and metaphorically, whether he didn't have to step back further in order to find a good perspective (“Perhaps this movie was so close to his heart that he was never able to stand back and get a good perspective on it ").

"Atom Egoyan knew, I am sure, that his didactic experiment would fail, that he could not evade the obvious, even the embarrassment." (Heike Melba-Fendel) "Egoyan's indirect reconstruction of the Turkish massacre of the Armenians escapes doesn’t quite overcome the pitfalls of the cinema , but shows courage and greatness, ”said Epd Film

Awards (selection)

  • Genie Awards (2003)
    • Best movie
    • Best Actress in a Leading Role: Arsinée Khanjian
    • Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Elias Koteas
    • Best original music
    • Best costume design

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ararat. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ cf. cinema.de
  3. ^ Film review by Roger Ebert
  4. ↑ Epd Film , 2/2004 p. 33.