Ravished Armenia
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Auction of souls |
| Original title | Auction of Souls |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | January 19, 1919 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Oscar apple |
| script |
Harvey Gates Aurora Mardiganian Nora Waln |
| production |
William Nicholas Selig First National Pictures |
| occupation | |
|
Aurora Mardiganian | |
Ravished Armenia , fully entitled Ravished Armenia; the Story of Aurora Mardiganian, the Christian Girl, Who Survived the Great Massacres is a book written by Arshaluys (Aurora) Mardiganian in 1918about her experiences during the Armenian genocide . It is an autobiography written in Englishin the cover volume .
An American film , which was based on this book in 1919 under the title Auction of Souls ( Auction of Souls turned). All known copies of the film have since been considered lost , but Mardiganian's report continues to be printed.
Book Vandalized Armenia
The author Arshaluys (Aurora) Mardiganian was born in the Ottoman city of Çemişgezek , which lies in what is now the province of Tunceli on the border with Elâzığ . She was the daughter of an Armenian financier in the city. The story begins in 1915 when Arshaluys was 14 years old. She had witnessed the murder of her father, mother, brothers and sisters. She was abducted into the harem of a number of Turkish pashas , but remained attached to her Christian faith despite repeated torture and imprisonment.
She found refuge with a Canadian doctor and missionary stationed with Frederick W. MacCallum, a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), who brought her safely back to Erzurum , then under Russian control. She later moved to Tbilisi in the Caucasus and, through the mediation of General Andranik Ozanian and the orders of the Russian military leadership of the Caucasus, was sent to the United States to recover from the bloodbaths.
Movie auction of souls
The silent film Auction of Souls was based on the book Ravished Armenia . The main role was played by Aurora (Arshaluys) Mardiganian herself, according to the film.
The film was shot from 1918 to 1919 and first screened in London . It was shown twice a day at the Royal Albert Hall for three weeks in 1920 to raise support for the protection of national minorities. The film shows a horde of Turkish soldiers marching past a long line of naked, crucified women, whose silhouettes stand out against the evening sky. A impaling scene is only softened by the fact that a crowd pushes between the action and the camera. Five scenes were cut out. However , there was never a formal clearance by the British Directorate of Film Censors for the United Kingdom .
The American premiere took place on January 19, 1919 under the title Auction of Souls .
According to a contemporary New York Times article, the first half of the film showed Armenia as it was before the Ottoman and German destruction and then moved on to the deportation of priests and families to the deserts. One of the scenes showed young Armenian women being staked or resold in slave markets for refusing to go to Turkish harems.
Film restoration 2009
A restored and edited 24-minute segment of the historical film was released by the Armenian Genocide Resource Center of Northern California in 2009. It was based on a preserved reel of film processed in the Armenian SSR in the Soviet Union . It also includes music, an introduction, 125 subtitles, and a slideshow of several factory photos. The DVD was published by Heritage Publishing, Richmond , California , with Richard Kloian owning the copyrights.
Web links
- Wikisource: Ravished Armenia - Sources and full texts (English)
- Youtube: RAVISHED ARMENIA, the original 1919 movie also known as [Auction of Souls] (the preserved and restored parts of Ravished Armenia )
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b James C. Robertson: The Hidden Cinema: British Film Censorship in Action 1913-1972 . Routledge, 1989, ISBN 0-415-09034-2 , pp. 15-16 ( google.com ).
- ^ Ravished Armenia (1919) Release Info. IMDb , accessed on March 18, 2014 .
- ↑ Ravished Armenia in the film (February 15, 1919)