If history is written by the winners, what happens to the stories of those who lost?
This is Atom Egoyan’s concern in Ararat, which deals with the often denied but historically documented slaughter of Armenian Turks in 1915. Rather than making a straightforward documentary, though, he explores all the historical fragments and half-remembrances and reconstructs a film from them.
As writer/director/producer, Egoyan is aware of the pitfalls his movie faces, from the Turkish government’s official denial that the genocide ever took place to the way emotion can colour our perception of events to the point of altering them to suit our own needs. So Egoyan makes it impossible to devote your loyalty to one particular character or their opinion, compelling us to pay close attention to all.
Despite the epic breadth of the story, it’s the actors’ compelling work and their characters’ respective agendas that make the film outstanding. Egoyan makes us privy to intensely private moments, where we learn what his characters ultimately want.
For Raffi (newcomer and U of T-er David Alpay), it’s the understanding of the terrorist acts of his father; for the art historian (Arsinée Khanjian), it’s the relative truth of a painting that provides a link to her past; and for her stepdaughter (Marie-Josée Cruz, it is the truth about her father’s death.
All these characters exist through storytelling. The process provides a link to their past and their way of revealing themselves to the other characters. Here, each is given their due, and as their stories are told against the epic background, we become aware of the nature of history and our collective need to participate in it.
By making us invest in the characters’ respective interests, Ararat creates a depth of meaning and emotion that is both devastating and intellectually challenging. Egoyan has taken an intensely personal subject and communicated it on a mass scale, and by examining many perspectives, restores the dignity and voices of those who never had the opportunity to speak.
