Themes: Haunted By the Past, Discovering One's Heritage, Mothers and Sons
Main Cast: David Alpay, Charles Aznavour, Eric Bogosian, Brent Carver, Marie-Josée Croze
Release Year: 2002
Country: CA
Run Time: 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan explores his Armenian heritage, and how the country's tragic history has touched several generations of the nation's expatriates, in this ambitious drama. Edward Saroyan (Charles Aznavour), a veteran filmmaker of Armenian descent, is in Toronto shooting a film about the Siege of Van, in which invading Ottoman armies forced the evacuation of Armenian communities in 1915, leading to the genocide of over a million Armenian people at the hands of Turkish troops. Twenty-one-year-old Raffi (David Alpay) has been sent to Turkey to shoot background footage for the film; Raffi's mother Ani (Arsinee Khanjian), an author and historian, is also involved in the project as a consultant. Lately Raffi and Ani have been at odds; Raffi has been dating Celia (Marie-Josee Croze), Ani's stepdaughter, who is convinced that Ani is somehow responsible for the death of her father. Ani's first husband, who was Raffi's father, is also dead, after taking part in an assassination attempt on a Turkish political leader. As Raffi attempts to re-enter Canada with cans of exposed film, he's detained by David (Christopher Plummer), a suspicious customs official who has his own tenuous link to Saroyan's film -- David is struggling to come to terms with the gay lifestyle of his son Philip (Brent Carver), whose lover Ali (Elias Koteas) is playing the villain in the picture. Ararat also features Eric Bogosian and Bruce Greenwood. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Ararat addresses a very emotional historical issue, the 1915 Armenian massacre, in a relatively detached and cerebral manner. The film's nonlinear structure, deliberate pace, somewhat opaque characterization, and themes of obsession and dysfunctional family relationships won't come as a great surprise to viewers familiar with writer-director Atom Egoyan's other films. However, those who are unfamiliar with his previous work and expect a historical drama about the Armenian massacre may be surprised to find that he cultivates emotional distance by telling this historical tale through a film-within-a-film and intertwining this story with several murky subplots. Indeed, Ararat could be considered less a film about the massacre itself than an exploration of the nature of mediated images and the difficulty of discovering the truth, which are themes that Egoyan has explored in previous films as well. This approach results in a movie that's filled with interesting ideas (although perhaps not as original or provocative as Egoyan may have hoped) but isn't engaging on an emotional level. Furthermore, some parts of the film feel unresolved (such as Raffi's reasons for going to Turkey and the details behind his father's death) while others seem overly contrived (particularly the way Egoyan uses the sequences in which a customs official interrogates Raffi as a pretext to lecture the audience on Armenian history). Egoyan deserves credit for creating a film that addresses this important but often neglected part of history while simultaneously acknowledging the difficulty in using movies to tell history, but it's unfortunate that he didn't make a film that was less cryptic and more affecting. ~ Todd Kristel, All Movie Guide
Bruce Greenwood - Martin/Clarence Ussher; Arsinée Khanjian - Ani; Elias Koteas - Ali/Jevdet Bey; Christopher Plummer - David; Simon Abkarian - Arshile Gorky; Christie MacFadyen - Janet; Susan Raymond - German Woman; Rose Sarkisyan - Translator; Gina Wilkinson - Art Teacher; Max Morrow - Tony; Jean Yoon - Third Assistent Director; Raoul Bhaneja - Photographer; Roberta Angelica - Armenian Bride; Lousnak - Shushan Gorky; Erica Ehm - Journalist; Lousnak Abdalian - Gorky's Mother; Garen Boyajian - Young Gorky; Setta Keshishian - Wailing Mother; Shant Srabian - Doctor 1; Dawn Roach - Customs Officer; Haig Sarkissian - Sevan; Arshile Egoyan - Child At Gallery; Kevork Arslanian - Armenian Fighter; Vic Keshishian - Armenian Fighter; Arthur Hagopian - Armenian Fighter; George Kharlakian - Armenian Fighter; Shant Kabriellan - Armenian Fighter; Varazh Stephen - Doctor 2; Samir Alnadi - Turkish Officer; Carlo Essagian - Turkish Soldier; Chris Gillett - Celia's Father; Shahan Bulat-Matossian - Wounded Teen Patient; Manuel Ishkhanian - Teen Patient's Brother; Lorna Noura Kevorkian - Armenian Bride; Mandyf Nissani - Armenian Bride; Manal Elmasri - Armenian Bride; Andrea Loren - Armenian Bride; Araxie Keshishian - Armenian Bride; Linda Gizirian - Rape Victim; Nicole Anoush Strang - Girl Under Cart
Credit
Kathleen Climie - Art Director, Katherine Climie - Art Director, Simone Urdl - Associate Producer, Julia Rosenberg - Associate Producer, John Buchan - Casting, Jenny Lewis - Casting, David J.Webb - Consultant/advisor, Charles A. Taylor - Consultant/advisor, Nicolas Dodd - Conductor, Al J. Vrkljan - Conductor, Dave Spence-Sales - Conductor, Sandra Cunningham - Co-producer, Beth Pasternak - Costume Designer, Fergus Barnes - First Assistant Director, Joanne D. Malo - First Assistant Director, Garfield Russell - First Assistant Director, Matthew Kershaw - First Assistant Director, Atom Egoyan - Director, Susan Shipton - Editor, Vincent Sullivan - Hair Styles, Eardley Wilmot - Location Manager, Robert Hilton - Location Manager, Mychael Danna - Composer (Music Score), Sylvain Cournoyer - Makeup, Cam MacDonald - Camera Operator, Phillip Barker - Production Designer, Paul Sarossy - Cinematographer, Janine Anderton - Production Manager, Atom Egoyan - Producer, Robert Lantos - Producer, Don White - Recording, American Folk - Recording, Stepan Beroojanian - Recording, Ron Mellegers - Recording, Peter Flood - Set Designer, Patricia Cuccia - Set Designer, Ali Murva - Special Effects, Steve Munro - Sound/Sound Designer, Ross Redfern - Sound/Sound Designer, Ross Redfern - Sound Recordist, Jamie Jones - Stunts Coordinator, Guy Bews - Stunts Coordinator, Atom Egoyan - Screenwriter, Ken Cade - Sound Effects Editor, Rick Parker - Animal Trainer/Wrangler, T.J. Bews - Animal Trainer/Wrangler, Greg Choporian - Historical Consultant, Paul Intson - Music Editor, Mychael Danna - Music Producer, Isabel Bayraksarian - Musical Performer, Gevork Dabaghian - Musical Performer, Grigor Takushian - Musical Performer, Kamo Khachaturian - Musical Performer, Levon Tevanian - Musical Performer, Artyom Khachaturian - Musical Performer, Karine Hovhannisian - Musical Performer, Tigran Ambarian - Musical Performer, Norayr Kartashian - Musical Performer, Andranik Michaelian - Musical Performer, Stepan Beroojanian - Musical Performer, Douglas Wilkinson - Post Production Supervisor, Kim Goddard-Rains - Production Coordinator, American Folk - Production Coordinator, Andranik Michaelian - Production Coordinator, Francois Dagenais - Prosthetic Makeup Effects, David Fraser - Screenplay Consultant, Joanne Harwood - Script Supervisor, Jordan Craig - Special Effects Coordinator, Performance Solutions - Special Effects Coordinator, Manuel Keusseyan - Translator, Sue Conley - ADR Editor, Greg Shim - ADR Recordist, Dave Yonson - ADR Recordist, Brent Roach - ADR Recordist, An Henshaw - Costumes Supervisor, David Dranie Taylor - Dialogue Editor, Andy Malcolm - Foley Artist, Goro Koyama - Foley Artist, Andrew Rosen - Production Executive, Ian Nelmes - Scenic Artist, Mr. X Inc. - Visual Effects, Film Effects - Title Design
Ararat is a 2002 film directed, written, and co-produced by Atom Egoyan based loosely on the Siege of Van during the Armenian Genocide, an event that is denied by the government of Turkey. In addition to exploring the human impact of that specific historical event, the film also examines the nature of truth and its representation through art. Ararat stars Charles Aznavour, Christopher Plummer, and David Alpay.
Egoyan is Armenian-Canadian and, as one of the few well-known Armenian filmmakers, had long been encouraged to make a film about the Armenian Genocide. However, Egoyan's previous films had all demonstrated an interest in the impossibility of knowing absolute truth. Egoyan thus made Ararat deliberately self-referential. It depicts the efforts of an Armenian director, Edward Saroyan (Charles Aznavour), to make a theatrical, Hollywood-style film about the genocide, from the fictionalised point of view of a genuine historical figure, Arshile Gorky.
Ararat thus includes graphic sequences depicting the horrors of the genocide, but they are always framed as scenes from Saroyan's film-within-the-film. The actors and filmmakers are shown discussing the ethical problems that arise when adaptating contentious subjects into simplistic movies; for example, Elias Koteas plays Ali, a Turkish-Canadian actor who becomes increasingly uncomfortable with playing the role of an evil Turkish military officer in Saroyan's film. (In a further complication, Koteas himself is Greek-Canadian, not Turkish). In addition, Saroyan's glossy costume-drama is contrasted with roughly-shot camcorder footage of lake Van and real ruined Armenian churches in the deserted city of Ani, near Mount Ararat.
There are also a number of secondary plots. One involves the relationship between Ani (played by Arsinee Khanjian), an art historian and expert on Gorky and adviser on Saroyan's fictional film, and her son Raffi (David Alpay). Another features Raffi and a Canadian customs official, David (Christopher Plummer), whose son is having a homosexual relationship with Ali, the actor in Saroyan's film.
The film was screened out of competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.[1] It was then given only a limited release in most countries, and failed to make a significant gross at the box office.[2]
Critical reception was mixed. Ararat received a 58 percent ("rotten") rating at Rotten Tomatoes[3] and a metascore of 62 ("Generally favorable reviews") at Metacritic.[4]
In This Corner (1985) ·Gross Misconduct (1993) ·Sarabande (1997) ·Krapp's Last Tape (2000) ·
Short Films
Howard in Particular (1979) ·After Grad with Dad (1980) ·Peep Show (1981) ·Open House (1982) ·Men: A Passion Playground (1985) ·Looking for Nothing (1988) ·Montréal vu par... / Montreal Sextet segment: En passant (In Passing) (1991) ·A Portrait of Arshile (1995) ·The Line (2000) ·
Diaspora (2001) ·Chacun son cinéma / To Each His Cinema segment: Artaud Double Bill (2007) ·
