‘Ararat’ casts its shadow on Glendale

Tim Willert

They came by way of tour bus, some wearing suits and skirts, some

pushing walkers or leaning on canes.

Hundreds of elderly Armenians -- most too young to remember the

Armenian Genocide, instead relying on stories passed down from family

members -- packed the Mann 10 Glendale Exchange Theatres on Friday to

see for themselves what happened.

Friday marked the Los Angeles-area release of “Ararat,” a film by

Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan that examines the effects of

the Armenian Genocide on a contemporary family.

It also is the first major motion picture about the genocide, when

an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by forces of the

Ottoman-Turkish Empire between 1915 and 1917.

Baghdasar Tonikan was one of 200 senior citizens from Daylight

Adult Health Care Center in Glendale to attend a special 9 a.m.

screening.

“I could see how my parents suffered. I could feel how they were

tortured as if it was happening to me,” Tonikan, 78, said through an

interpreter.

The film, which opened Friday in Los Angeles and New York, is

scheduled to be released in 10 major U.S. cities Nov. 27. Tickets to

all Friday, Saturday and Sunday screenings of “Ararat” at the Mann 10

on Maryland Avenue were sold out by noon Thursday.

Glendale resident Karbis Karamanian, 73, was among those who

walked away empty-handed.

“This is our biggest tragedy, but at the same time, today is a

happy day because of the film,” he said.

Karamanian’s parents escaped the genocide by jumping off a dock

and swimming to a nearby boat.

“We’ve only been able to imagine how everything happened,” he

said. “This film is not for us, it’s for the general public, to show

them the reality.”

Zaruhi Abrahamian of Glendale said nearly 100 of her relatives

were massacred in the genocide. She was lucky enough to see the movie

Friday, but was visibly shaken by its contents.

“I felt very bad, because I remembered all the stories that my

father told me,” Abrahamian, 73, said through an interpreter.

‘IT’S ABOUT OUR LIFE’

“Ararat” tells the story of Raffi, a production assistant on a

film about the Armenian Genocide. He is stopped on his way back from

Turkey by a customs official who is suspicious of his sealed film

cans.

The film shifts through time, and features a film within a film as

well as an interlude about American painter Arshile Gorky and two

disparate families trying to reconcile and connect despite their

personal patterns of denial.

“It’s not just about the Armenian Genocide; it’s about ideas of

tolerance, the sharing of experiences,” Director Atom Egoyan said

prior to a screening of the film Tuesday night during the AFI Fest at

the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. “It’s about our life, here and now.”

Sevag Garabetian, 21, of La Crescenta attended Friday’s 11:45 a.m.

screening. He said the stories he’s heard over the years didn’t

compare with the graphic depictions of violence presented in the

film.

“All of a sudden you see it on the screen, and it really hits

home,” he said.

Garabetian was joined by 20-year-old Vahe Akopian of Glendale,

vice president of the Armenian Student Assn. at UCLA.

“You don’t hear much about the Armenian Genocide because it’s a

controversial topic,” Akopian said. “This is a great opportunity to

get the word out.”

MAKING OTHERS AWARE

Ararat, a region of Armenia, is also the name of the largest and

highest volcano in far eastern Turkey, bordering Armenia, Iran and

Iraq.

In “Ararat,” director Egoyan revisits questions of history, memory

and cultural identity in the contemporary electronic age.

“The responsibility of telling this story and trying to be as

personal as possible ... has been really overwhelming,” the director

said. “I just hope the approach that the film takes can engage people

and excite people.”

The film is being used by Armenian-American activists to educate

people and to help push for official U.S. recognition of the

genocide, which has long been denied by Turkey.

“We hope the film raises public awareness and draws attention to

the issue,” said Ardashes Kassakhian, government relations director

for the Armenian National Committee of America, Western Region. “We

also hope that this movie makes people question the motives of the

deniers of the Armenian Genocide.”

Activists hope the film will help persuade members of Congress to

vote for the genocide recognition bill.

“We’re hopeful that our government will have the foresight to

recognize the genocide and hold our allies to the same standards as

we do our enemies,” Kassakhian said.

STEEPED IN CONTROVERSY

Last month, the Armenian Assembly of America, the nation’s largest

Armenian lobbying group, organized a screening of the film at the

Library of Congress for nearly 500 people, including members of

Congress.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Glendale) did not attend the screening, but is

pushing for a genocide recognition bill.

“We’re going to work hard to raise the profile of the issue and

get the resolution passed,” Schiff said Thursday. “I think the film

will help a great deal in raising the public consciousness of the

Armenian Genocide, helping to educate the members on the issue and

helping to put momentum on our side.”

The film drew so much protest from Turkish groups, including a Web

site with a boycott-threatening form letter to be sent to distributor

Miramax, that Egoyan decided to decline a spot in the Cannes

competition because he didn’t want to add to the controversy.

“I choose not to take those threats seriously,” Egoyan said,

inviting Turkish people to watch the “film I made and not the film

they’re being told about.”

The Turkish government, meanwhile, has no official position on the

film, said Ozgur Altan, vice consul for the consul general of Turkey

in Los Angeles.

“On the other hand, we believe [the film] reflects the director

and the producer’s own version of history, and we believe that

history is distorted in their story,” Altan said Thursday. “We

believe this movie is giving a one-sided and biased approach.”

The official Turkish explanation is that violence in the region

was a result of World War I and many people died on both sides.

“Millions of people lost their lives, including Turks and

Armenians,” Altan said. “There was no genocide, as the term genocide

is perceived.”

Said Kassakhian: “It’s the expected response. They have nothing to

lose by trying to deny this in every way possible.”