Movie Description
ARARAT, Atom Egoyan's mysterious drama about the horrors of the largely unknown Armenian genocide in Turkey, unrolls through a film within the film (also titled ARARAT). Jumping back and forth in time, Egoyan weaves together the lives of several people. Ari (Arsinee Khanjian), an art historian, is an advisor on the film. Her son Raffi (David Alplay) is part of the film crew. When Raffi travels to Armenia to gather some additional footage, he is detained by a customs agent (Christopher Plummer) and remains in custody for most of the film. Meanwhile, Raffi's stepsister and girlfriend Celia (Marie-Josee Croze) is haunted by her father's suicide. These and other stories within ARARAT are ostensibly linked through the film within a film. Yet, it is each character's quest for truth which binds them thematically and drives the plot. The film is populated with thematic twins, as each character's individual struggle is mirrored in the plight of the other characters. Egoyan works from his own script relying heavily on references to Arshile Gorky's painting "The Artist and his Mother" and Clarence Ussher's historical document, AN AMERICAN PHYSICIAN IN TURKEY.
| Credits | | Producer: | Atom Egoyan, Robert Lantos | | Cast: | Arsinee Khanjian, Bruce Greenwood, Christopher Plummer, David Alpay, Marie-Josee Croze |
Notes
Theatrical release: November 15, 2002
Editorial Reviews
"...[A] profound reflection on historical memory....ARARAT is a multilayered work that burrows ever more deeply into its subject as it goes along..."
New York Times - p.E18 - Stephen Holden (11/15/2002)
"...[A] dense, passionate drama....As ever, Egoyan assembles a devoted repertory cast..."
Entertainment Weekly - p.54 - Lisa Schwarzbaum (11/22/2002)
"...Egoyan covers all this territory and more with aplomb and clarity....[ARARAT] richly rewards those prepared to go the distance..."
Los Angeles Times - p.C12 - Kevin Thomas (11/15/2002)
"...Egoyan creates a dense system of poetic correspondence by editing across time frames, and the impression one has of archetypes echoing through the ages is irresistibly poignant..."
Sight and Sound - p.39-40 - Peter Matthews (05/01/2003)
"...A complex web of fact and friction that uses a film-within-a-film device to explore issues of truth, guilt and national identity..."
Total Film - p.103 - Neil Smith (05/01/2003)
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