Ararat

Canada, France

2002

115 Min

Color

1.66:1

English, Armenian, French, German, Turkish

Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
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PROD Atom Egoyan, Robert Lantos

CAST David Alpay, Christopher Plummer, Arsinée Khanjian, Charles Aznavour, Marie-Josée Croze, Elias Koteas, Eric Bogosian, Bruce Greenwood, Brent Carver, Simon Abkarian, Raoul Bhaneja, Setta Keshishian, Garen Boyajian, Max Morrow

MUSIC Mychael Danna

Cannes (Out of Competition), AFI FEST (Gala), Toronto, Karlovy Vary

Synopsis

People tell stories. In Toronto, an art historian lectures on Arshile Gorky, an Armenian painter who lived through the genocide in Turkey in 1915. A director invites the historian to help him include Gorky’s story in a film about the genocide and Turkish assault on the town of Van. The historian’s family is under stress: her son is in love with his step-sister, who blames the historian for the death of her father. The daughter wants to revisit her father’s death and change that story. An aging customs agent tells his son about his long interview with the historian’s son, who has returned from Turkey with canisters of film. Parents and children. All the stories connect. —IMDb

Director

Atom Egoyan

Atom Egoyan’s parents were painters and he studied International Relations and music at the University of Toronto where he began making short films: “Howard in Particular” 1979, “After Grad with Dad” 1980, “Peep Show” 1981 and “Open House” 1982.

While he has several distinguished Television and Opera works on his resume and such pictures as his debut “Next of Kin” 1984, Berlin and Moscow International Film Festival-winning “Family Viewing” 1987 and “The Adjuster” 1991 – his most critically acclaimed creation is The Sweet Hereafter (1997) and his most famous work is the astonishingly clever film-in-film Ararat (2002)

4 time Cannes Film Festival winner and the most famous Armenian filmmaker since Sergei Parajanov, the Egypt-born, Canada-bred, Oscar-nominated master of indie cinema, has collected an impressive 4 awards from the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival.

A 7 time recipient of Canada’s top Genie Awards, he is a remarkable figure in contemporary… read more

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Algitya

3Nov12

The scene where Greenwood's Gorky improving during the interfere was so dazzling. Found another reason to adore him.

Algitya

3Nov12

correcting : Greenwood's Clearance Usher.. hihi me sorry.. ^ ^

Cremildo

9May12

The perfect example of a truly thought-provoking film.

Classroom Battles

28Mar12

A complex film about the complexity of relationships and the weight of history. Great ensemble casting.

R i M. and Algitya like this

Hellshocked

27Jan12

By treating the Armenian genocide as irrelevant, history has made it impossible to forget it. All of the film's characters, whether they realize it or not, have been marked by an event that occured decades before they were born. An event that, even a century later, has lost none of its power. It is this white hot rage (even the film within a seems to emphasize a group of US missionaries caught in the middle more than the genocide itself) that fuels "Abarat", sustaining its uneven pacing and plethora of narrative threads. If it is messy, well, so is memory. Particularly when it has been passed down from generation to generation.

jeff likes this