Ararat

Ararat is a 2002 film directed, written, and co-produced by Atom Egoyan based loosely on the Siege of Van during the Armenian Genocide, an event that is denied by the government of Turkey. In addition to exploring the human impact of that specific historical event, the film also examines the nature of truth and its representation through art. Ararat stars Charles Aznavour, Christopher Plummer, and David Alpay. Egoyan is Armenian-Canadian and, as ... more

Ararat is a 2002 film directed, written, and co-produced by Atom Egoyan based loosely on the Siege of Van during the Armenian Genocide, an event that is denied by the government of Turkey. In addition to exploring the human impact of that specific historical event, the film also examines the nature of truth and its representation through art. Ararat stars Charles Aznavour, Christopher Plummer, and David Alpay. Egoyan is Armenian-Canadian and, as one of the few well-known Armenian filmmakers, had long been encouraged to make a film about the Armenian Genocide. However, Egoyan's previous films had all demonstrated an interest in the impossibility of knowing absolute truth. Egoyan thus made Ararat deliberately self-referential. It depicts the efforts of an Armenian director, Edward Saroyan (Charles Aznavour), to make a theatrical, Hollywood-style film about the genocide, from the fictionalised point of view of a genuine historical figure, Arshile Gorky. Ararat thus includes graphic... less