‘Ararat’ confronts truth in world of denial
By Paul F. Agusta, Contributor/Jakarta, [email protected]
Jakarta Post, Indonesia
Dec 8 2004
Canadian author and journalist, Peter C. Newman, once wrote, “History
is no more than memories refreshed.”
Now, Armenian-Canadian writer-director Atom Egoyan sets out to refresh
mankind’s collective awareness concerning a long-buried event of
history; the Armenian genocide of 1915.
Although occurring almost a century ago, this event in which 1.5
million Armenians were killed or deported in a massive act of ethnic
cleansing within the Ottoman Empire, continues to haunt the both
the Armenians and the Turks, who have yet to fully acknowledge the
possibility it even happened at all.
With the deftly layered and heavily textured film, Atom Egoyan
points out that we cannot escape our histories, neither personal,
national or collective, nor can we escape the desire to understand
what happened and maybe, along the way, discover a hidden reality —
what makes us who we are.
It is this desire to comprehend that drives the majority of the
film’s characters, especially the young Armenian-Canadian Raffi;
the main protagonist.
In a film-within-a-film, in stories within a story, and in the midst
of grasping at a thin red thread of truth within a tapestry of lies
and denials, Raffi, played with subtle sadness and burning passion
by David Alpay, finds himself questioning his heritage while working
as a production assistant and driver on the set of a film about the
Armenian genocide.
As his questions are answered, even more questions emerge to plunge
him ever more deeply into an obsession with history; the catalogue
of the forgotten. As viewers watch Raffi turn the pages of the past,
the film, Ararat, takes on new and more complex layers that may daunt
many in the audience.
Egoyan throws such an immense amount of information at the audience
that it threatens to inundate the senses and to almost obscure the
core storyline of the genocide itself.
Yet, Egoyan never loses sight of the impact of that event, and
carefully ties up every lose end for the audience as the myriad threads
of the story entwine. It is his meticulous attention to detail as a
screenplay writer that lends immediacy to this film and motivates a
desire to learn more about this often-overlooked part of history.
It is as if Egoyan has set out to take the advice of Lord Acton who
once suggested that if the past seems to be an obstacle and a burden,
knowledge of it would be the safest and surest emancipation.
Ararat, which is rounded out by a stellar international cast,
including Christopher Plummer, Charles Aznavour, Eric Bogosian,
Arsinee Khanjian, Elias Koteas and Bruce Greenwood, is a solid piece
of work. Not one person among the players gives a performance that
falls short of excellence.
Charles Aznavour, who plays Edward Saroyan, the director of the
film-within-the-film, skillfully and aptly depicts a wounded soul,
who is a descendent of survivors.
Christopher Plummer plays David, a stern and almost reluctantly
compassionate professional, whose decisions are pivotal not only
for Raffi, but also for the cinematic revelation of the history of
the genocide.
As if driven by the suspicion that history is destined to repeat
itself because not enough people were consciously observing the
first time around, Egoyan has taken pains to make sure this film
is so unforgettable that it inscribes the tragedy of this atrocity
indelibly on the psyches of filmgoers.
Ararat is a film that many viewers may find requires a second viewing
due to the necessary complexity of the storytelling. It is truly
worth the effort.