Film Archives

Genocide should be made available to the Turkish youth. Arthur Vardanyan

December 21, 2014 By administrator

Arthur Vardanyan, among other film directors, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, to indulge our nation’s most important theme of this film preparation, his face, however, putting a major problem, Genocide access to Turkish youth.

“Cannes” film festival showing of “Libra” film “The People” has also talked about the movie is a great addition.

Live up to the 100th anniversary of the genocide, you’re going to shoot the film as a target audience by providing the Turkish youth, and if I’m not mistaken, your main heroine is a real character, yes.

Yes, even though the film was shot in the 100th anniversary, my main goal is to get the universal nature of the psychological drama of the main heroine of the Armenian Genocide saw that in his childhood in captivity, and who has a mental problem.

I, as a director, I strive to make the subject accessible to young people in Turkey, which can serve as a link between the Turkish government and society. If we can do something to change, then it is possible to do for young people. Also, I am going to create a product that will be available in outside audience.

Today is the quality of what you see in nature films. SD: I want to revive the cinema. We are films about human ideas and should not be relied upon bombastic slogans, just look at the man, even more so-called “little man”, that is, an ordinary man, but real Hero:

My film will be the theme of genocide in human subjects. How does the movie industry, the clips were observed outside the influence of the products on the market. This can be problematic, and what solutions do you see? I -Inks shooting folk, patriotic videos, which reflects our national traditions, our own values and to avoid outdoor exposure should be shooting a video in line with our national thinking, problem solve in harmony with ourselves. This is the way out.

Anna Babajanyan

Cinema full house for “The Cut” by Fatih Akin screened last night in Valencia preview

December 6, 2014 By administrator

Friday, December 5 as part of the launch of the Armenian Heritage Centre program, offered in Films Valencia Ship (Drôme) preview screening of the film “The Cut” by Fatih Akin. The public responded in large numbers because instead of a single room “The Cut” was screened in two halls that hosted more than 300 people.

During more than two hours, the audience impressed by Fatih Akin film on the moving story of an Armenian family decimated by the Armenian Genocide held its breath. At the end of the film, he made a large ovation with applause.

Cyril Desire, film director The ship then called one of the producers of “The Cut” the French Stéphane Parthenay which gave new Fatih Akin returned the same day in Istanbul where he oversaw the film in near twenty rooms in Turkey. Stéphane Parthenay who claimed that Fatih Akin held in Valencia this projection that identifies an important Armenian community then answered many questions from the public.

“Fatih Akin expectations of the distribution of the film in France in view of the large Armenian community and the genocide issue which is more sensitive in France compared to Germany,” he said and added ” by addressing the issue of the Armenian genocide, Fatih Akin hopes to raise awareness in Turkey.

“ The mayor of Valencia, Nicolas Daragon welcomed this event, which is one of the first of a long series of 2015 program Armenian Heritage Centre. Piatton Laure, director of the Armenian Heritage Centre also mentioned the rich program that CPA offer throughout 2015. Annie Koulaksezian-delegated Romy Community Advisor CPA stressed the many events scheduled at the CPA. Annie Koulaksezian Romy-like Nicolas Daragon stressing that 2015 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by the city and the metropolitan area have decided to encourage multiple events.

Krikor Amirzayan

Azeri soldier who filmed Armenian copter downing punished

December 6, 2014 By administrator

The soldier who filmed the downing of the Armenian helicopter by the Azeri armed forces on November 2 has been punished, Azeri media report.

The statement came from the Azeri Defense Ministry spokesman Vagif Dergahly in response to a comment by MP Agil Abbas.

At a December 5 information security meeting hosting government and media representatives, Abbas asked whether the soldier who posted the footage on Armenian helicopter downing online, was punished.

According to Dergahly, the soldier was immediately identified: “serious measures were taken in this regard. Further details cannot be disclosed in view of the classified nature of the information.”

Mi-24 helicopter belonging to the Nagorno Karabakh army was shot during a training flight as result of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani armed forces on Nov 12, at about 1pm local time. The attack took place not far from the line of contact.

The NKR State Commission on prisoners of war, hostages and the missing persons appealed to the International Committee of Red Cross mission in the NKR with regards to the fate of the crewmembers, one of whom could possibly survive the crash. However, Azerbaijan continued to keep the site under fire.

As a result of a special operation on Nov 21 night, NKR armed forces retrieved the body of one crew member, the remains of two pilots and some helicopter wreckage.

News.az. Soldiers who filmed downing of Armenian helicopter punished

Cairo International Festival of Cinema: Ode to Suffering The Cut (injury), Armenian genocide

November 22, 2014 By administrator

The opening film of the Cairo Film Festival, The Cut (injury), forcing the director Fatih Akin being exposed to ultra-nationalists of his country, Turkey. A work on the Armenian genocide in 1915, but also the contemporary political wars and conflicts

A subject taboo, forbidden and dangerous, but I have the courage to tackle it on the screens in favor of those who lost their lives free. “ Thus, the German director of Turkish origin Fatih Akin, describes his film, The Cut (injury), screened at the opening of the 36th Cairo International Film Festival.

The Cut is the third part of the trilogy of Fatih Akin on Love, Death and the Devil, and after Head On the other hand, winning at Cannes. Making his first international this year’s Venice Film Festival, The Cut back on the Armenian genocide of 1915 that caused the death of nearly one and a half million Christians, mostly Armenians, but also Greeks.

During World War I, the Ottomans killed 1.5 million Armenians, according to them and speak of “genocide”. Turkey, it refuses the term and denies that figure, arguing that there was a maximum of 500,000 Armenian victims and they perished in battle or died of starvation. The Cut then tells the story of a man who lives in Mardin, a city in south-eastern Turkey, which had escaped the massacre of Armenians in 1915 and went in search of his daughters.

In the international press, Fatih Akin said that Turkey is “mature enough” to receive and accept this film. “I tell those who are afraid: It’s only a movie. But I am sure that the Turkish society, including myself, is mature enough to welcome “. However, the film starts, and not surprisingly, strong criticism in Turkey as to assert its director death threats.

Faced with such difficulties, it took eight years for Akin to accomplish this project, as it has faced many obstacles, including the inability to find a Turkish actor to play the lead character in the film.

The young filmmaker insisted that the role to be played by a Turk, believing in the importance of “a Turkish film”. “A French or American actor could not play the character of Hrant Dink,” he said before the screening of his film at the Venice Film Festival. “It is up to us – the Turks – confront us with this issue,” he said.

But finally, he gave up the lead role entrusted to a Turk, being obliged to give it to Tahar Rahim, a young French actor of Algerian origin. The latter excelled embody Nazaret young blacksmith, a victim of the Turkish army in 1915.

As its name suggests, Nazaret Manoogian has the misfortune to be part of the Christian Armenians. One night, the army knock on his door to incorporate strength. After a few dozen months breaking stones in the desert, he was offered as to other prisoners to convert to Islam. Disobedient as he unfortunately slain but Nazaret falls on a sensitive executioner let him live, but not without him anyway split the vocal cords, reducing him to silence for the rest of the film.

Released Nazaret discovers that only his twin daughters survived the horrors of war, and he began to find them during a trip that will take him to Cuba and in different states of America Florida.

Sumptuous but bland Illustration

Side forms, co-written by Martin Mardik scenario brings some visual beauty and a panoramic photo 35 mm, to give the film touches of Hollywood blockbuster. However, sometimes it during the 140 minutes of the film, printing a succession of scenes exposure, almost all at the same pace. Moreover, the dialogue is sometimes oversimplified, and the fact of the Armenian characters speak in English, while all other languages are subtitled, was not the right solution to make the attached or nearby public content.

Akin clearly seeks to address a contemporary audience, either through dialogue or through an electric musical band’s wrong with this kind of historical films. Moreover, some images remind wars underway in the Middle East, with the refugee camps and the suffering of free citizens, but an own perspective to the director.

Regarding the interpretation in this epic, Rahim proves once again its abilities to change depending on the character’s skin, or rather by the challenge. He excels at using his talent to face this almost silent role, thus requiring a physical game worked well, despite some moments of flatness in rhythm. Because the scenario can be summarized in a series of sometimes excessive testimonials. However, this does not affect the quality of the film, entered as a good example, even though direct perfected.

http://hebdo.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/0/5/25/7457/Festival-international-du-cin%C3%A9ma-du-Caire—Ode-%C3%A0—.aspx

My film is not is not devoted to Genocide, says Turkish director (it is against Taboo)

October 21, 2014 By administrator

Fatih Akin, the Turkish-German director whose movie “The Cut” stirred up anger over the Genocide issue in Turkey, has complained about facing threats.

In an interview with Evrensel, Akin said the film is neither political nor devoted to the Armenian Genocide per se. He said he was inspired by book written by Hassan Cemal, Cemal Pasha’s grandson.

“If the grandson of someone who was responsible for the era uses the word, why shouldn’t I use it? The book is on sale in book-stores and displayed on shop-windows,” he noted.

“I didn’t search the topic; it found me itself. As a child of a family from Turkey, it was always of interest to me, especially when it turned into a taboo. When something is banned, you become curious and studious. ”

Asked whether the topic still remains a taboo in Turkey, Akin said he sees that a lot has changed since the assassination of Hrant-Dink, the editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.

“If, seven years ago when Hrant Dink was killed, you tried to speak about the Genocide in any café, those sitting at the table would show resistance. You can now speak about it without whisper almost everywhere,” he answered.

Akin blamed the Turkish propaganda for diverting the Turkish society from the historical truth.

“If one nation was permanently cheated by historians and politicians [who said] ‘nothing of the kind happened; it’s a big lie’ etc., and heard nothing else from families, textbooks and newspaper, I cannot blame them.

“But the politicians calls for leaving history to historians is wrong. History belongs to us, the people …” he added.

Armenian-Russian film to center on devastating Spitak quake of 1988

October 20, 2014 By administrator

A film based on the 1988 devastating earthquake in Armenia will launch production in January 2015, Kavkaz-uzel.ru reported.

The Yerevan, Gyumri and Moscow-set Armenian-Russian film titled “11:41” will star Armen Jigarkhanyan, Yevgeni Sidikhin, Chulpan Hamatova, Rafael Kotanjyan, Mkrtich Arzumanyan and Sos Janibekyan.

The film, budgeted at $2,5 million was produced and scripted by Cinema Concept Production founder Alik Shahbazyan.

The film centers at a young woman (Hamatova) buried under the quake debris with her 1,5-year-old baby daughter who she keeps alive by biting through her fingers to feed the child with her own blood.

“These characters were based on real-life events, with the actual mother and daughter to be consulted during the film-making,” Shakhbazyan said.

The filmmakers hope to premiere the movie December 7, 2015 at 11: 41 through the assistance of World Armenian Congress.

On December 7, 1988, at 11:41 a.m. local time, magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook northwestern Armenia and was followed four minutes later by a magnitude 5.8 aftershock. In the epicenter, the village of Nalband, the tremors were reported to measure 10 on the Richter scale.

The earthquake leveled the cities of Spitak and Gyumri and left about 25,000 people dead, 100,000 injured and 500 000 homeless.

‘Karabakh: Peaceful Life Next to War Ghosts’ – VOA film features second Armenian republic (Video)

October 18, 2014 By administrator

The Voice of America has released documentary about Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), referring back to the history of the land dispute and its value for the Armenians.

The movie, entitled “Karabakh: Peaceful Life Next to War Ghosts”, raises the voice of the Artsakh people who aren’t willing to hear a word about the continuing peace talks. “What is just a territory for the international community is a sacred fatherland for us,” they are quoted as saying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5747OPGy1EA

Armenian Film Project Seeks Backing on Kickstarter

October 8, 2014 By administrator

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Stephanie Garoyan Ayanian and Storyshop Films are producing the documentary film “A New Armenia” to document Armenian American lives today.

“Many excellent films have been made about the Armenian Genocide, but there are no films that capture the stories of the generations of Armenians who have grown up in the United States,” the filmmakers say in a statement released about the project.

Storyshop Films, with experienced filmmakers Stephanie Ayanian, Tom Keiter, and Joseph Myers, are asking the community to back their project on Kickstarter with monetary contributions to help make the film a reality. Their goal is to raise $45,000 dollars by Oct. 21 (of which about 28,000 has been raised at the time of this writing).

Kickstarter is an online “crowdfunding” website, where individual can contribute donations or investments to a project. If the project’s funding goal (in this case $45,000) is reached, the project receives the money, but if the goal is missed, the money contributed is returned to the donors.

“To make the film, the creators will immerse themselves in the daily lives of Armenian Americans young and old,” the project’s description explains.

“Spending significant time with both families and individuals, we will watch artists, musicians, and language teachers at their craft. We’ll peek into kitchens while grandparents impart thousand-year-old recipes. We’ll share social and religious traditions, with laughter and solemnity. We’ll huddle with business leaders as they bring honor and financial security to their families and communities.

“We lack a film that documents and celebrates the joys, struggles, culture, and values of these Armenian Americans. We lack a film that asks: as survivors, and as a thriving community, how do we move into the future while remaining connected to our values, our roots?

“It is our mission to perpetuate a thriving Armenian culture. Please help us make this film,” the film’s Kickstarter statement reads.

The project idea for “A New Armenia” originated with Stephanie Ayanian, a third-generation Armenian American living in the Philadelphia area. Her grandparents survived the Genocide as children, grew up in the Armenian ghettos of Marseille, France, and came to reestablish their community in Fresno, California. Her bedtime stories were often of her grandmother’s childhood—the Genocide, the kidnapping of her family members, the reuniting, and the refugee camps.

“First, we must find the families,” the filmmakers say on their Kickstarter page. “The hardest part of any film like this is to spend the time – real, dedicated time – traveling, meeting people and choosing a ‘cast’ of families and characters for the film. This is where your support and your stories come in.”

“Your support will provide funding for preliminary interviews with Armenians around the country, and the plane tickets and hotel rooms we’ll need to make them happen. The stories you send us after you sign up to donate will help us cast a net far and wide, leaving no stone unturned in our search for the best stories.”

Storyshop’s Ayanian, Keiter, and Myers have considerable experience as filmmakers with multiple national directing, producing, and executive producing credits, as well as many awards. Storyshop’s documentary work takes on difficult, complex topics, and attempts to change minds through real-person narrative storytelling. Storyshop has a history of public television projects that focus on issues including human rights, domestic violence, technology, and environment.

Previous public television projects include “Liquid Assets,” “Geospatial Revolution,” “Telling Amy’s Story,” “World on Trial,” “You Can’t Say That” (in development), and “Water Blues, Green Solutions.”

To learn more about the “A New Armenia” film project and to make contributions, visit the project’s Kickstarter page.

The Cut review: Fatih Akin’s Armenian genocide epic draws blood

August 31, 2014 By administrator

By Peter Bradshaw in Venice for the Guardian

Tahar Rahim is a mute father searching for his children in the aftermath of a conflict cinema has tended to neglect. His story is compassionately handled, but the film lacks the subtlety of Akin’s earlier, non-English language workEchoes of Pasolini’s Christ in the Gospel According To St Matthew … Rahim with daughters in The Cut.Photograph: Indiewire

“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” asked Adolf Hitler, and this mass murder in 1915 by the Ottomans of the minority Armenian population is still a hugely controversial subject, especially in Turkey where there is resistance to assuming a retrospective burden of genocidal shame. Fatih Akin, the German-Turkish film-maker, has made it the starting-point for a heartfelt, if soapy Zhivago-ish quest epic, his first English-language movie; he directs, produces and co-writes with Mardik Martin, the veteran screenwriter who worked with Scorsese on Raging Bull and Mean Streets.

It’s a big, ambitious, continent-spanning piece of work, concerned to show the Armenian horror was absorbed into the bloodstream of immigrant-descended population in the United States, but it is a little simplistic emotionally, especially in its latter half as the film trudges across America with its hero. It doesn’t have the sophisticated nuance and wit of Akin’s contemporary German-language movies, like Head-On (2004) and The Edge of Heaven (2007).

6246ca20-550d-4f94-8440-dad810ddaf4c-460x276 — A still from The Cut Photograph: Indiewire

This horrifying historical episode is neglected in the cinema — although Atom Egoyan addressed it in his 2002 film Ararat; Akin takes it on in good faith, although Armenian communities may take exception to the fact that he actually dramatises, on screen, the brutal deaths of 30 or so victims. The part can stand for the whole of course, but the total numbers involved are not specified.

Tahar Rahim plays the embattled hero Nazareth, a blacksmith and Armenian Christian who is torn from his wife and twin daughters by the Ottoman authorities for a supposed military conscription which is nothing more than slave labour on a work gang and a forced march heading to racial annihilation. But he encounters decent Turks: a civilian prisoner who pretends to cut his throat at the orders of a soldier, but merely stabs him in the neck, leaving Nazareth alive but mute. Nazareth scrambles away, an undead fugitive from history: a crew of Turkish army deserters help him with food and water.

He is finally taken in by a soap manufacturer: the ambiguous metaphor is there if we want it — the soap which genuinely cleanses, or merely something with which powerful people will wash their hands of responsibility. The manufacturer attempts to give some of his wares to soldiers, and calls after them: “The whores of Aleppo will thank you!” Poor, mute Nazareth becomes obsessed with one thing: finding his daughters, now young women, a mission which will take him on a journey of thousands of miles.

A still from The CutPhotograph: PR

It is this journey which is frankly the film’s weaker aspect. There is little historical or political contention in it, and not much actual drama; the horror itself recedes in the memory to be replaced by a long search and a long haul, with disappointments verging on the farcical, in the course of which Rahim’s character does not grow or change that much. He remains pretty boyish-looking, despite some grey hairs at the end. (At the beginning of the movie, in fact, he has a look of Pasolini’s Christ in the Gospel According To St Matthew.) And he is mute, of course, which means that there is not much in the script for Tahar Rahim to work with, and he gives what amounts to a very subdued performance although interestingly one moment when he does comes alive is in his entranced reaction to a silent movie show: Chaplin in The Kid. Nazareth’s eyes light up like a child’s.

But otherwise the movie is not much leavened with comedy or happiness. It’s understandable. The Cut can mean the brutal act of murder itself; it can mean the division of husbands from wives, parents from children, and it can mean the present from the past, the insidious amputation of memory. Whether The Cut encompasses this last sense is up for debate, but it is a forceful, watchable, strongly presented picture and a courageous, honest gesture from Fatih Akin.

Turkey: threats to the first Turkish film on the bottom of the Armenian Genocide (Video)

August 16, 2014 By administrator

Armenian Life Magazine 1429 – Writing

August 13, 2014

The German-Turkish director Fatih Akin and the Armenian-Turkish bilingual weekly Agos received death threats sent by nationalist Turks, Agos who last month published an interview with the director about his new film. The content of the messages, massive support for making the threats and the passivity of the authorities are grim illustration of the current atmosphere in Turkey. Death threats are an omen for next year, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Akin – author of the films “Head On”, “Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul” and “Soul Kitchen” – was awarded on July 30 a long interview about Agos “The Cut”, his new focus on film Armenian Genocide. The interview, which was met with great interest has interesting revelations.

For example, Akin said he thought a film about the life of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the former editor of the newspaper Agos who was assassinated in 2007, but no actor he approached had agreed to hold the role.

Akin subsequently began work on a new project: the story of a Turkish-Armenian who, having escaped the massacre of 1915, began the search for her daughters worldwide. Akin wrote the script in German, but was later determined to filming in English. He asked this participation Mardik Martin, an Armenian American and Iraqi writer roots that contributed to the scripts of films by Martin Scorsese. According to Akin, Martin has not only translated; he modified and given the intensity to the script.

The film – with French actor of Algerian origin Tahar Rahim and Turkish Bartu Kucukcaglayan actor – was shot in Jordan, Cuba, Canada, Malta and Germany. His first showing is scheduled for next Venice Film Festival and only the trailer is now available.

Akin told Agos he did not consider “The Cut” as a film about the Armenian Genocide, but as an adventure film. He said not to have had to do so politically motivated and that he hoped the film “will receive the welcome in Turkey and should be projected in large rooms.”

Akin was aware that the fate of his film would not be the same as that given to others in Turkey, even if it is not based on the theme of genocide. “The Cut”, after all, is the first film of a director that addresses the Turkish 1915 events The filmmaker, however, remains optimistic in his view, the film in Turkey will be without problems. “I trust; Turkish people, myself included, is ready for this kind of movie, “he told Agos.

However, since the publication of this interview, a tweet from the Pan Association – Turkist Turanian Akin showed he may have been too optimistic.

We read in the message: “The process is triggered under the direction of the newspaper Agos, for the screening of Fatih Akin on the so-called Armenian Genocide ‘The Cut’ in Turkey. ‘The Cut’ is the first link in the chain of a plot to gain recognition by Turkey of the Armenian Genocide lies before 2015 … and we will not allow it to be screened in Turkey. We openly threaten the newspaper Agos, Armenian fascists and complacent intellectuals. This film will be screened in any room in Turkey. We follow the development of our white wearing berets in the Azeri golden banner. We will see if you are able! “.

The metaphor of “white cap” becomes a sinister message. Samast, the alleged murderer of Hrant Dink, wore a white beret when he shot in the neck Dink outside the offices of Agos in central Istanbul, 19 January 2007 The white cap has since become the frequently raised by participants in the demonstrations racist and anti-Armenian nationalist symbol.

The threat of Turanian Association was relayed on social media by the messages of support from other ultranationalist groups.

The events that followed showed that the Turkish authorities have learned nothing of the murder of Hrant Dink, who was preceded by similar threats. According to the Turkish penal code, these messages is a criminal offense for many reasons, from the threats they have to hold a hate speech. Prosecutions against the perpetrators do not imply that complaints are filed by the victims; the law gives prosecutors the power to initiate criminal proceedings. Unfortunately, hate speech against minorities retains no attention of the prosecutor.

In an advertisement in Al-Monitor reaction, the editor of Agos Robert Koptas said the publication had become accustomed to receiving threats, given the passivity of the authorities as the norm. “For us, the situation is not extraordinary. And the fact that the situation is not extraordinary in itself is an indication of the atmosphere in which we live “Has he said.

“We had to once again make a complaint, despite the fact that the police and justice were supposed to have been seized with these offenses. We are not asking for special protection, but we are a publication whose editor-in-chief was murdered outside his own office. Also, the threats we receive are supposed to have a special significance for the police and prosecutors, “said Koptas. He added that no government official had called him about the threats or make any public statement on this.

Threats indicate that some tensions and turbulence is expected in Turkey in 2015, the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. The debate on the Armenian Genocide in Turkey became free as it has ever been. The commemorative events are now held across Turkey on 24 April, Genocide Remembrance Day. Although the latest incident shows that ultranationalist groups are on alert, the anniversary approaching.

Threats against Akin’s film shows that some circles in Turkey have lost none of their intolerance and emboldened by the failure to act of justice, feel free to take who they want. It seems that no lesson from the past have not been learned.

Gilbert Béguian translation Armenews