Ararat

Synopsis: Raffi (David Alpay) is Canadian born of Armenian parents. He returns from Turkey carrying canisters which he claims hold footage to be inserted in a film being made by Edward Saroyan (Charles Aznavour) on the history of the 1915 Armenian genocide by the Turks. Customs officer David (Christopher Plummer) suspects the contents of the canisters and interrogates Raffi to discover far more than he would have imagined. Meanwhile Raffi’s mother, an art historian, Ani (Arsinée Khanjian), lectures on the Armenian-born American expressionist painter Arshile Gorky (Simon Abkarian) who is a character in the film being made. Celia (Marie Josee Croze), Raffi’s stepsister and lover, constantly baits Ani in an effort to discover the truth of her father’s death. Add to the mix David’s son Philip (Brent Carver) and his half-Turkish lover Ali (Elias Koteas) who stars in Saroyan’s film, and you have two interconnected stories: that of the actual history portrayed in the film within a film, and that of the modern characters. Both feature suspicion, lies, denial, fear and truth and their vast personal and historical legacy.

As you can see from the synopsis, Ararat has a complex plot and requires quite some concentration to grasp its subtleties. The most easily understood elements are the film-within-a-film – the making of Saroyans’ epic, also titled Ararat. It chronicles the genocide of the Armenians in a town called Van, as based upon a novel by an American doctor stationed there. The cinematography is splendid and the several graphic scenes of brutality cannot help but remind us of the genocide of the Jews in Germany. (Hitler’s famous statement “Who remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?” is chillingly referred to.)

However, the fact that the Turks have never acknowledged the Armenian genocide to be a historical truth underscores many of the deeper themes of the entire film. Ali debates the truth of history with Saroyan and Raffi – how this doubt corrodes modern day possibilities of relating to the past is all too clear. Celia refuses to believe Ani’s version of her second husband’s (Celia’s father’s) death. Meanwhile Raffi desperately wants to understand the legacy his ethnic history has left him, and he, in turn, inspires David’s strong desire to believe in the contents of the film canisters revealing Raffi’s tortured visit back to Armenia,.

All in all Ararat was a touch too crammed with intricate subplots for my taste, although possibly a second viewing would make its complexity less intimidating. Although there are some wonderful elements in the film, I felt that Atom Egoyan is too close emotionally to this subject matter of his own Armenian heritage. It is almost as though he wants to ram the message down our throats, particularly in the repetitive lectures Ani gives on the tortured character of the painter Gorky. Nevertheless, it is a story that needs telling, and by showing not just a simple historical epic, but entwining that epic in a modern tale, we get a greater sense of how a people’s history of  persecution marks its descendants for all time.

 

 

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