DVD
Ararat

Starring: David Alpay, Eric Bogosian and Charles Aznavour
Momentum Pictures
RRP £19.99
MP264D
Certificate: 15
Available now


Switching between the past and modern day, we see part of the events surrounding the Turkish/Armenian massacre at Mount Ararat, and the present day making of a film of the events. Adding poetic licence, the scriptwriter makes Gorky, an Armenian painter, a character and this brings in an art expert with knowledge and speculation on the man himself. She has a son and daughter by two different husbands. The son's father died trying to assassinate the Turkish ambassador, but the daughter resents the story she is told about her father dying by his own hand...

The same dark story is told from so many different angles here that you quickly feel depressed enough to consider watching a party political broadcast instead, or even eating a pot noodle (yes, that bad!). Charles Aznavour (yes, the guy who used to dance with himself) plays the film director, and Christopher Plummer plays a stone-faced customs man who stops the art consultant's son when entering the country, just so that he can blankly listen to his heartrending story.

The majority of films in this day and age will contain an element of humour, even if it's a wry comment or situational happenstance. It's all about light and shade. Without initial joy, how can you be taken by the sadness? People need to feel happy once in a while; it's what gets them through the trials and tribulations of everyday life. No such humour is to be found here. These are very serious themes; events which continue to shape the lives of the characters years after the event. Imagine Schindler's List and you won't be too far from the mark. At least Spielberg's film contained an underlying theme of hope, whereas this film prefers to stupefy itself in deep depression.

Many critics would find it simplicity itself to describe Ararat as pretentious or maudlin claptrap, but it doesn't quite fall that low. It is better than I expected. The characters appear to feel passionately about the past and how the new film might portray the apparent annihilation of the Armenian race. But would they really feel this strongly years later? In other words, do the Jews really still hate Germans, or just the idea of Nazism? Throughout history many nations have conquered and latterly been accused of mass slaughter: Turks, Greeks, British, Chinese, Romans, Americans... I can understand any race wanting to maintain its identity, but as one character in the film says, "Let's move on."

Not a bad film, by any means, but lacking that essential seed of hope for a bright future.

Ty Power

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