Starring David Alpay, Arsinee Khanjian, Christopher Plummer, Charles Aznavour, Elias
Koteas, Bruce Greenwood, Brent Carver, Marie-Josee Croze, Eric Bogosian.
Written and Directed by Atom Egoyan.
The estranged members of a contemporary Armenian family are faced both with Turkey's
denial of their catastrophic past and with their own denials. A mother Ani (Khanjian)
who only wants peace, but still reveres the death of her first husband who died trying
to assassinate a Turkish diplomat. A young woman (Croze), Ani's stepdaughter whose father
died under mysterious circumstances and who Ani for his death and wants nothing but
retribution. Ani's son David (Alpay) who tries to uncover his roots, willing to
jeopardizing his future to learn more about the real facts about Armenian history.
The story also involves a famous director (Aznavour) creating a film about the Armenian
genocide, starring an actor Martin (Greenwood) who becomes more and more engrossed
in the bloody history of the character he is playing - Clarence Ussher, an American
caught in Armenia and a witness to the bloodshed that took place. Appearing in the
film is a part Turkish actor Ali (Koteas) who plays a ruthless Turkish general in
charge of slaughtering a sizeable number of Armenians and moving the rest. After
shooting wraps worries about how the Turkish community will likely criticize him
for his role in the film. His lover Philip (Carver) is unhappy his father (Plummer),
an about to be retired customs agent.
Atom Egoyan, of Armenian descent himself, has chosen to use the Armenian genocide
of begun in 1915, as the backdrop of a different and more contemporary story. Egoyan
has stated that for him, this film is personal, but the Armenian genocide is just
one theme of the film, and he often demonstrates the depraved brutality of the Turkish
army in killing a lot of innocent people. The major thrust of the film deals with
what truth is, whether people who claim to know truth can be believed, and
the power of denial in ignoring what we wish not to face. Whether it is the Turkish
government continuing to deny the genocide, or Ani denying her husband's terrorist
(freedom fighter?) activities, or the custom's agent's trying to deny the lifestyle
of his son and gay lover, people who publicly strive to find the truth often themselves
shy away from it in their own lives. Like all of his film, Egoyan tells the story
jumping back and forth between subplots, and between past and present events. It worked
very well in The Sweet Hereafter, but for me it works less well here. It was
difficult to follow the events and how things fit together at first, although it did
become easier as the film progressed. As well, I found the ending quite unrealistic
in how David was handled by the customs agent.
The film-within-a-film is set on April 24th, 1915, the first day the genocide began,
eventually leading to an estimated historical epic about the holocaust where reportedly
1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered from 1915 to 1923. Supposedly, it gave Hitler
confidence he could slaughter the Jews without the world noticing. The events in this
film are based on the diary of Clarence Ussher, an American doctor who ran a mission
in Turkey at the start of the genocide.
Performance wise, rookie actor David Alpay has his moments, although in scenes like his
pleading with the part Turkish actor to believe in the Armenian Genocide and its importance,
I found him unconvincing. Standing out is Elias Koteas as the part Turkish actor who
plays an evil, brutal Turkish general, thankful for his big break, but later having second
thoughts when he imagines the negative reaction he will face from the Turkish community.
Bruce Greenwood also excels as the self-absorbed star of the film who gets caught up
in the emotion of the story. Christopher Plummer is excellent as the about-to-retire
customs agents looking back over his career and its meaning and what he will do in
the future.
Overall, I found Ararat interesting, educational and thought-provoking, but
often overly slow-moving. If you wish to learn a little history, Ararat can
be rewarding viewing, despite it's deficiencies.
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