Egoyan Mounts Testament;
New Film Ararat a Personal take on Genocide
by Bruce Kirkland, The Toronto Sun - June 8, 2001.
Posted: Monday, June 11, 2001 at 11:50 PM CT
“I think, as an Armenian filmmaker, you're always wondering about this film, because it has never really been made, as such. It is a unique piece of history. The crime has never been admitted by the Turkish government that perpetrated it, so that makes for a very interesting dramatic situation, dealing with issues of denial.”
— Atom Egoyan
Mt. Ararat is the name of the highest peak in the rugged landscape of Turkish Armenia, a region now devoid of the ancient Armenian people.
Ararat is now a potent symbol, too, as the name of Toronto filmmaker Atom Egoyan's newest film, a complex drama about the genocide that 'cleansed' Turkey of its ethnic Armenians. Egoyan is currently shooting it on location in Toronto.
"It is a huge responsibility," Egoyan said on Wednesday on the set at Cherry Beach.
As Baltimore orioles sing in the trees and ring-billed gulls swoop over the set, dozens of Armenian-Canadians stroll past Egoyan's camera and re-enact street scenes in the Armenian-Turkish town of Van in 1912. Villagers play board games, shop for molasses-dipped walnuts and almonds, sample dried figs and dried apricots, look over melons and other fruits. Boys play in the dust while women hang over balconies chatting with the passers-by. A donkey pulls its cart up the path.
ARMENIAN MASSACRE
This bucolic scene belies the true nature of what will come in 1915 -- a wholesale massacre of at least 600,000 people (according to Encyclopedia Britannica) and the expulsion of an equal number as Turkey reacts, in a way of racism, to the outbreak of World War I. Massacres of Armenians had been happening since 1895, but this was the biggest.
It is the first mass genocide of the 20th century, a horror which is rarely acknowledged, Egoyan said. That's why he feels his movie is such a responsibility. Armenians have been waiting for a major film on the subject for decades.
"I think, as an Armenian filmmaker (he was born in Egypt and raised in Canada but is of Armenian heritage), you're always wondering about this film, because it has never really been made, as such. It is a unique piece of history. The crime has never been admitted by the Turkish government that perpetrated it, so that makes for a very interesting dramatic situation, dealing with issues of denial."
UPSTAGED BY LANTOS
The project started when Egoyan's long-time producer, Robert Lantos, introduced him at an Armenian community centre in Toronto where Egoyan was getting an award. Egoyan remembered that he had written a conventional speech.
"But he sorted of one-upped me," Egoyan said of Lantos, "by standing up in front of this audience and saying that the time had come to make a film about the Armenian genocide. And the whole audience, in this emotional outburst, stood on their feet. Even he was probably surprised."
For Lantos, a Hungarian-born Jew who was then developing Sunshine, an epic about anti-Semitism in his native country, Ararat made sense.
"I felt that this is another story like Sunshine that simply had to be told," Lantos said Wednesday. "It's not just a movie. It's not just a story. It is something that really truly matters and it had to be told by Atom. There really isn't anyone else who could tell that story, any more than there is anyone else who could have told the story of Sunshine other than Istvan Szabo."
Not surprisingly, Egoyan's film is not an historical epic. While the 1912-15 period is depicted, it is staged as a film-within-the-film. The genocide is viewed from the perspective of a young Armenian-Canadian working on the film in Toronto in 2001. As he awakens to his history -- provoked by the making of the historical film -- the audience is awakened too.
Egoyan said he is not comfortable with the idea of making a straight-ahead, traditional historical epic in the David Lean style. "I'm a filmmaker who happens to be very self-conscious. I wonder why I need to make the images I do, and that is in the films, and people are either part of that discourse or not."
Armenian-Canadians are not concerned. They are happy that the film, any film, about the genocide, is underway.
"To me, it's an honour to be associated with his work," said jeweler Ara Run of Exclusive Diamonds. Each day, he has been raiding his Sherway Gardens store of delicate woven gold necklaces and bracelets, as well as hundreds of other period-looking pieces, to bring them here for the actors. For free.
LOST GRANDFATHERS
"To me, it is important to be accurate, but I know it's even more important to Atom. He has a reputation for precision."
As for the subject of the film -- the genocide -- Run said the story must be told: "It's part of our heritage. Unfortunately, it is one of the first genocides of the century and not many people know." He lost both his grandfathers in the massacres.
For 18-year-old Araxie Keshishian, who plays a young bride in the film-within-the-film, acting in Ararat is a thrill, with a caveat. "It's a real honour to be here because we all respect Atom so much. But it's really, really long hours!" She looked resplendent in some of Run's gold jewelry, including a $4,000 necklace and a $3,000 bracelet.
The people on set seem to have a sense of entitlement. This is their story. Egoyan, who lost his great-grandparents in the genocide, is conscious of that, too.
"It's kind of amazing. Everyone wants to be involved in this because everyone realizes that it's this unique opportunity. Everyone has a story to tell. What is overwhelming is having to say, 'No' to some people, because everyone wants to help. Everyone wants to bring what they have.
"We're all aware of the responsibility that the project carries and yet we're trying not to let that burden us. It's very tricky. Sometimes, if you stop and think about it, it could be paralyzing. But you can't let yourself do that."
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