CRITIC’S CHOICE: "ARARAT " ON CBC ON SATURDAY AT 10:00PM
by Ken Carriere
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
THE GLOBE REVIEW 7; TELEVISION: SATURDAY
July 27, 2007 Friday
There is no way to make a simple, ordinarily plotted drama about
the Armenian genocide of 90 years ago. To this day, angry debate
flies back and forth over its extent and what term should be used to
accurately describe it. Some governments do officially recognize it as
a "genocide," others refuse to, while many hurriedly dig a trench in
the middle where they can hide. Cleverly, award-winning director Atom
Egoyan, himself of Armenian descent, incorporated the contemporary
debate into his historical movie. In fact, the self-referential plot
revolves around the difficulty of an Armenian director trying to
mould such a hotly controversial subject into a workable movie, in
the face of intense opposition from the Turkish authorities and even
from one of the actors (played by Elias Koteas) on the film within the
film. Numerous subplots – some might say a few too many to comfortably
squeeze into two hours – weave in and out of the main story, mainly
about the consequences the genocide inflicts on people to this day.
Ararat won five Genie Awards, including best picture and best
supporting actor (Koteas). David Alpay, Christopher Plummer and
Marie-Josee Croze also star.