Expression
“Why did you bring this! ….. Don’t you know what it is about!?”
I chided at my husband, after inspecting his DVD rental choice for Friday evening. It had been a long week, I was exhausted and looking forwards to a relaxing evening watching a diverting movie that would relax me.
“The clerk at the store recommended it”, my husband retorted
“But do you know what it is about”, I asked him in an agitated voice.
When my husband didn’t respond, I answered my own question.
“It is a movie about the Armenian holocaust”
Ararat, by Atom Egoyan, was the movie that my husband brought home that evening . The same movie I was careful to avoid. I am a big fan of Atom Egoyan movies. My favorite is “The sweet hereafter”, but I absolutely loved “Exotica” as well. His movies break all the rules, they tell stories which are not chronological, the events and characters are not always related in a clear manner. Yet each shot, each scene and each word in the dialog is precise. His movies describe the inner lives of people; their thoughts, intimate motivations and conflicted feelings. He does this using a tool that is inadequate because movies are visual and you come to a movie expecting events. Yet Atom Egoyan is successful to transmit that which is unspeakable and not visual through visual images and speech in dialog. His movies are moving visual poetry we understand the message without understand how. Like magic, Atom is able to explode ideas into your head without you noticing it. He is having a conversation with your subconscious through his movies.
When I heard that the Armenian born in Egypt director decided to make a movie about the Arminian holocaust I decided to avoid it because for some reason I thought I would be seeing a movie similar to The Pianist
or Schindler's List . Both movies devastated me and put me is a depressed state for a week. In the movie the pianist I watched the movie and hoped half way through that the main character would die so that his suffering would stop. Afterwards, I felt guilty for feeling that way since the main character survives and manages to put his life back together.
Knowing how skilled Atom Egoyan is at transmitting feelings and subconscious thoughts I expected his movie to destroy me into pieces and force me to push the death of 1.5 million people through my head and psyche. I was terrified of the movie and didn’t want to watch it. When it came to the Vancouver International Film festival I read all the reviews about it and stayed clear. I went to see other movies at the festival but not this one. One movie review stuck in my head for some reason. It praised the movie and said that it was well done but also said that the plot was too complex and confusing. That there were too many characters and events and it was hard to focus in what was going on and keep track of the movie. This surprised me since all previous movies by Atom Egoyan are poetically simple and each main character is crystal clear. Is it possible that the directors feeling were muddled because of his personal connection to the subject matter and therefore was not able to make a movie up to the same usual standard of clarity? I wondered to myself; but remained steadfast in my determination to not go see the movie.
Many months later my husband walked into our house with the movie in his hand and I finally succumbed to the curiosity. I sat down to watch the movie and told myself that at the slightest hint of psyche crushing, heart wrenching feeling I would get up and go to bed, leaving my husband to watch the movie all by himself. But ….. I was foolish …… I should have known ….. This was an Atom Egoyan movie ….. I should have known that it would be like no other movie I had seen before.
It starts nice and slow. A bunch of different characters each living in modern day Canada. They are all different and have separate lives and aspirations and dreams and personalities. But most have one thing in common and that it that they most are Armenian and deep within them they each carry the hurt of an atrocity of something that happened so long ago. An atrocity that continues to be denied by those who wish it would be forgotten. Some wish to remember it obsessively, one woman has made it her life’s work to honor an artifact that represents that atrocity, some wish to forget about it and continue with their lives and then comes the director that wants to make a movie about it. Yes, the director Atom Egoyan makes a movie about a director that is making a movie about the Armenian Holocaust. And by doing that he exposes the psyche of what it means for a person to make a movie about a genocide. The desire to make sure that the movie is rooted in facts proven in history yet ensuring that it is not too abstract. How do you tell a human story without reducing it into anecdotal account of a few people. How do you represent the full scale of the suffering of millions but keep the audience captivated. How far do you push, how much gore do you put into the movie. How much suffering can you show, how much to vilify those who have committed the crime. What is the purpose of such a movie, is it to educate, is it to validate the pain, is it conjure up sympathy from those who are not related to it, or is it revenge, to get them back to strike back at those your ancestors were helpless to strike at. But now the director is strong and educated and has means and a reach and he can make the most horrific movie with the most horrific details that will make the whole world hate the whole Turkish race forever and ever. But then if he doesn’t push enough he will have his own community accusing him that he was too soft, not committed enough to the cause, not worthy of the honor associated with carrying the mantle of such a noble cause. These are all the themes that the movie deals with through all of it characters. The director in the movie makes the full blown “the human race is doomed and we are wretched creatures on its face” sort of movie. And Atom Egoyan makes a movie that is full of humanity and love for all people and all races including the Turkish. Acknowledging the pain that continues to persist yet allowing room for forgiveness and hope. How he manages to achieve that is a miracle in my view. It makes me in awe of him. How do you achieve that? How can I achieve that myself in my writing? … I have no idea.
As for the reviewer who thought that the movie was confusing ….. I have no idea what he was talking about. Don’t you get it dummy? It is a movie about a person who is in pain yet struggling to put himself in the shoes of everybody else including those who are hurting him. Really putting him self in their shoes, really seeing them in as honest and as compassionate way as possible, you just never see him on the screen.
The movie has been banned in Turkey. What a bunch of dummies they are. I am neither Armenian nor Turkish but if ever there was a more compassionate view of Turkish people while dealing with the Armenian genocide, this would be it. If I was Turkish I would embrace the movie with open arms and pray that all future Armenian directors, writers and artists are as enlightened as Atom.
I loved the movie so much, I watched it 4 times in a row that night. The only other movie I was mesmerized by as much, was Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock which I saw when I was a teen.
I chided at my husband, after inspecting his DVD rental choice for Friday evening. It had been a long week, I was exhausted and looking forwards to a relaxing evening watching a diverting movie that would relax me.
“The clerk at the store recommended it”, my husband retorted
“But do you know what it is about”, I asked him in an agitated voice.
When my husband didn’t respond, I answered my own question.
“It is a movie about the Armenian holocaust”
Ararat, by Atom Egoyan, was the movie that my husband brought home that evening . The same movie I was careful to avoid. I am a big fan of Atom Egoyan movies. My favorite is “The sweet hereafter”, but I absolutely loved “Exotica” as well. His movies break all the rules, they tell stories which are not chronological, the events and characters are not always related in a clear manner. Yet each shot, each scene and each word in the dialog is precise. His movies describe the inner lives of people; their thoughts, intimate motivations and conflicted feelings. He does this using a tool that is inadequate because movies are visual and you come to a movie expecting events. Yet Atom Egoyan is successful to transmit that which is unspeakable and not visual through visual images and speech in dialog. His movies are moving visual poetry we understand the message without understand how. Like magic, Atom is able to explode ideas into your head without you noticing it. He is having a conversation with your subconscious through his movies.
When I heard that the Armenian born in Egypt director decided to make a movie about the Arminian holocaust I decided to avoid it because for some reason I thought I would be seeing a movie similar to The Pianist
or Schindler's List . Both movies devastated me and put me is a depressed state for a week. In the movie the pianist I watched the movie and hoped half way through that the main character would die so that his suffering would stop. Afterwards, I felt guilty for feeling that way since the main character survives and manages to put his life back together.Knowing how skilled Atom Egoyan is at transmitting feelings and subconscious thoughts I expected his movie to destroy me into pieces and force me to push the death of 1.5 million people through my head and psyche. I was terrified of the movie and didn’t want to watch it. When it came to the Vancouver International Film festival I read all the reviews about it and stayed clear. I went to see other movies at the festival but not this one. One movie review stuck in my head for some reason. It praised the movie and said that it was well done but also said that the plot was too complex and confusing. That there were too many characters and events and it was hard to focus in what was going on and keep track of the movie. This surprised me since all previous movies by Atom Egoyan are poetically simple and each main character is crystal clear. Is it possible that the directors feeling were muddled because of his personal connection to the subject matter and therefore was not able to make a movie up to the same usual standard of clarity? I wondered to myself; but remained steadfast in my determination to not go see the movie.
Many months later my husband walked into our house with the movie in his hand and I finally succumbed to the curiosity. I sat down to watch the movie and told myself that at the slightest hint of psyche crushing, heart wrenching feeling I would get up and go to bed, leaving my husband to watch the movie all by himself. But ….. I was foolish …… I should have known ….. This was an Atom Egoyan movie ….. I should have known that it would be like no other movie I had seen before.
It starts nice and slow. A bunch of different characters each living in modern day Canada. They are all different and have separate lives and aspirations and dreams and personalities. But most have one thing in common and that it that they most are Armenian and deep within them they each carry the hurt of an atrocity of something that happened so long ago. An atrocity that continues to be denied by those who wish it would be forgotten. Some wish to remember it obsessively, one woman has made it her life’s work to honor an artifact that represents that atrocity, some wish to forget about it and continue with their lives and then comes the director that wants to make a movie about it. Yes, the director Atom Egoyan makes a movie about a director that is making a movie about the Armenian Holocaust. And by doing that he exposes the psyche of what it means for a person to make a movie about a genocide. The desire to make sure that the movie is rooted in facts proven in history yet ensuring that it is not too abstract. How do you tell a human story without reducing it into anecdotal account of a few people. How do you represent the full scale of the suffering of millions but keep the audience captivated. How far do you push, how much gore do you put into the movie. How much suffering can you show, how much to vilify those who have committed the crime. What is the purpose of such a movie, is it to educate, is it to validate the pain, is it conjure up sympathy from those who are not related to it, or is it revenge, to get them back to strike back at those your ancestors were helpless to strike at. But now the director is strong and educated and has means and a reach and he can make the most horrific movie with the most horrific details that will make the whole world hate the whole Turkish race forever and ever. But then if he doesn’t push enough he will have his own community accusing him that he was too soft, not committed enough to the cause, not worthy of the honor associated with carrying the mantle of such a noble cause. These are all the themes that the movie deals with through all of it characters. The director in the movie makes the full blown “the human race is doomed and we are wretched creatures on its face” sort of movie. And Atom Egoyan makes a movie that is full of humanity and love for all people and all races including the Turkish. Acknowledging the pain that continues to persist yet allowing room for forgiveness and hope. How he manages to achieve that is a miracle in my view. It makes me in awe of him. How do you achieve that? How can I achieve that myself in my writing? … I have no idea.
As for the reviewer who thought that the movie was confusing ….. I have no idea what he was talking about. Don’t you get it dummy? It is a movie about a person who is in pain yet struggling to put himself in the shoes of everybody else including those who are hurting him. Really putting him self in their shoes, really seeing them in as honest and as compassionate way as possible, you just never see him on the screen.
The movie has been banned in Turkey. What a bunch of dummies they are. I am neither Armenian nor Turkish but if ever there was a more compassionate view of Turkish people while dealing with the Armenian genocide, this would be it. If I was Turkish I would embrace the movie with open arms and pray that all future Armenian directors, writers and artists are as enlightened as Atom.
I loved the movie so much, I watched it 4 times in a row that night. The only other movie I was mesmerized by as much, was Psycho
by Alfred Hitchcock which I saw when I was a teen.
There is a way between voice and presence where information flows.
In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it closes. .... Rumi
8:08 PMI have more of a question than a comment: why do people want to hate entire groups because of crimes commited by an identifiable subgroup of them?
For example, many Americans blamed all muslims/arabs after 9/11 and your post suggests many Armenians feeel similarly about Turks. How foolish it is in my opinion. I find it hard to find sympathy for such people, such as a lot of the protestors in China who were opposed to a japanese text book. I don't see how blaming an entire group of people, most of which are innocent of the crimes they are accused off, advances the cause of justice or truth.
Of course, I think you would agree with this, but I would like to point out your assumption that the average Turkish citizen should feel responsible for crimes committed before they were born. Is this fair? Should the sons make penance for their father's sins? What do you think of people demanding apologies from the families of criminals: why should people feel guilty by association?
5:14 AM
anon, i think the reason is that the muslims never took full responsibility for what happened on 9/11. there was no apology, no feeling of caring, and no sympathy. actually there was dancing in the streets in most muslim countries. japan has done very little to make up for the atrocties it committed in china, the philippines, and many other countries, so there is no closure there. at least the germans have openly apologized many times and do a lot of things to help their own people understand the mistakes that were made during the time of nazis. even today, many muslims hold conspiracy theories that bush hired jews to crash into the WTC and a true muslim would never do that. they believe jews or americans are blowing up cars and killing children in iraq. when people confront and acknowledge the problems and suffering their people caused, then the healing can begin.
8:11 PM
anon, i think the reason is that the muslims never took full responsibility for what happened on 9/11. there was no apology, no feeling of caring, and no sympathy.
You are simply illustrating the point brilliantly: why should the average muslim in say India have to take "responsibility" for the actions of 19 men they never knew and would not support anyway? When some right-wing Christian nutcase bombs an abortion clinic, should the church apologize?
japan has done very little to make up for the atrocties it committed in china, the philippines, and many other countries, so there is no closure there.
Can you hold most Japaneses reponsible for things that occured before they were born? Should chinese protestors be calling japanese people pigs (not because they commited war crimes but simply because they are japanese)?
they believe jews or americans are blowing up cars and killing children in iraq.
Well America was dropping a lot of ordinance on Iraq in 2003 and it surely killed a lot of children (remember the boy who lost both arms and his family?) and destroyed plenty of vehicles among other things. That is not conspiracy but plain fact (I know you are talking about the terror bombings now, in which case such theories are purely speculative, but I just thought I would remind you of what has transpired).
when people confront and acknowledge the problems and suffering their people caused, then the healing can begin.
"Their" people. That says it all. I guess it is "their" fault for being from the same country, religion, ethnicity, etc as whatever "evil-doer" is being crucified now. People are not guilty by being born (or maybe you think they should be?).
By your argument, many Americans should confront and acknowledge the problems and suffering their soldiers have caused in places like Vietnam and Iraq before healing can begin, not because they necessarily supported these situations, but merely because they are American.
7:52 AM
Im going to rent this film, thanks for posting on it
7:54 AM
PS comparing 9/11 to the holocaust or any act of genocide isn't much of a comparison. Totally different item, full stop.
5:49 PM
I wasn't comparing any tragedies to see which one is more "worthy" of mourning. However, I WAS comparing peoples' reaction to these things which is to, among other things, blame everyone associated with the perpetrators of the tragedy. Full stop.
10:17 AM
This series of comments, now nearly two months old, really caused me to stop and think, and I not infrequently reflect on the various issues/questions that the exchange raises for me. None of the above comments expresses what I feel or believe, nor am I able to put my finger on the issue(s) that I find troubling. The first anonymous post at 8:08 PM sounds so rational, but it simply does not account for human nature, whether individual or group nature. My first reaction to it was to ask myself why people feel pride by association, followed by questions concerning whether pride is a fair opposite of guilt and other questions leading to the ultimate question of what does or should it mean to be a member of a group - whether a nationality, race, religion, rich, fat, poor, etc. This week, after reading two posts, I was reminded of this exchange of comments, and I am still trying to “solve” the issues raised by this little exchange of comments. My first reaction to these comments on other blogs was surprise, immediately followed by the words, “You have no reason to feel the least bit of shame or the slightest sliver of responsibility.” These sentiments of mine are, of course, absolutely true, and both bloggers know that to be the case. But it doesn’t change how they feel. Interesting, isn’t it? Personally, I know what it is like to feel appalled and ashamed of what others who have no real connection to me have done, and I know what it is like to feel pride at the actions of others similarly distantly connected to me. I wonder why I feel that way, and I cannot explain it, at least not yet.
4:13 AM
I loved The Pianist too. Amongst my favorites...
8:35 AM
The French leave history to historians when it comes to exploited afro-countries and algeria case but they have a bill on so called armenian genocide. americans and spaniards killed and exterminated many tribes and sub-races, caused death to millions.. vietnam and iraq?? what the heck usa were doing there? Yet, I have never seen anyone talking about the turkish cypriot massacres? or turkish women and children killed by armenian militia backed up and armed by russians? the image of ppl about Turkey is so much biased and based on stereotypes. Midnight Express is all they know about Turkey. But they have many opinions about this country. Don't you think it is a little bit unfair when you know so little about a country and its people but you have so much opinion??? We don't ride camels ppl. The so called modern and developed europe just remained as onlooker when serbs massacred thousands of bosnians. but when it comes to greek cypriots "you invaded their homeland" or armenians "you massacred them", kurds "you killed them". I wonder if ppl know little about why turkish armed forces has fought against PKK for about 20 years. Just becoz they are on the mountains?? I doubt something. Have you ever seen a baby being shot by an automatic Kalashnikov AK-47 when it was sleeping in its cradle??? and it was most probably a kurdish baby. and this didnt happen just once.. many times.. But BBC is only there broadcasting when turkish mobilized troops were deployed. not after an assault on a village taking shots of killed villagers. and it is not coincidence...
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