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Surviving The Armenian Genocide

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  • Surviving The Armenian Genocide

    SURVIVING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

    The Straits Times (Singapore)
    April 1, 2015 Wednesday

    by John Lui

    Review :
    Drama
    THE CUT (NC16)
    138 minutes/Opens tomorrow/***1/2

    The story: This drama is about the period leading to, during and after
    the 1915 genocide of ethnic Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman
    Empire. After surviving the horrors of the conflict, blacksmith
    Nazaret Manoogian (Tahar Rahim) learns that his twin daughters are
    still alive. He sets out to find them, embarking on a journey that
    will take him from Turkey across Asia, to Cuba and the United States.

    This handsomely mounted pan-European production tries to wrap its arms
    around an event that took place exactly 100 years ago, the consequences
    of which echo today in diplomatic quarrels over the definition of
    "genocide" and in the ethnic makeup of parts of the world that took
    in the diaspora that followed the war.

    In 1915, within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, soldiers of
    the Ottoman empire systematically killed between 1 million and 1.5
    million members of the Armenian minority population.

    German film-maker of Turkish origin Fatih Akin works with a screenplay
    from Mardik Martin, an American of Armenian ancestry, the writer
    behind Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973), New York, New York
    (1977) and Raging Bull (1980).

    The genocide took place over a protracted period and large expanse of
    land and this film tries to bring it down to a human scale by placing
    the naive, largely innocent Nazaret in the midst of the action.

    Things that happen to him - the round-up, work camp and executions -
    are detailed and intimate. As Russian dictator Joseph Stalin said,
    the death of one is a tragedy and the death of millions is a statistic,
    and the film's use of Nazaret is effective.

    Death, when it comes, is shocking, intimate and dirty. Except for
    one scene taking place in a refugee tent city populated by the dead
    and dying, there are no large-scale ensemble scenes or people on the
    march or military manoeuvres.

    Akin, in a less successful artistic touch, at times uses anachronistic
    electronic music in the soundtrack.

    The second and less successful half of the film attempts a portrait
    of the diaspora experience. While beautifully lensed, it feels like
    an overlong, padded-out road movie.

    The Cut will be screened on a regular schedule only at The Projector,
    at Golden Mile Tower, Beach Road.



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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