‘WE HAVE GREAT TALENT FOR FILMMAKING’
People
Azg/arm
19 July 05
Canadian-Armenian actress Arsine Khanjian never says “your” while
speaking about problems in Armenia but always “our”. She expressed
pain over the fact that less films were shot in Armenia in recent
years. She certainly knows the reason of this tendency, and she
offers new solutions telling that it is unacceptable to stagnate and
lag behind modern cinematography. Arsine is well aware of the best
Armenian films shot at Hayfilm studio in Soviet times, she heard
opinions of famous film critics abroad and agrees with them that
that was the heyday of Armenian film industry. “Those films are few
because Armenia is a small country but their quality is very high.
The talent of creating powerful films could not fade away. We are the
same people only we don’t have the possibilities of those years. I
can confirm that there are many gifted filmmakers in Armenia today
but they lack the digital systems that are used all over the modern
world. In North America, for one, anyone creative can write a scenario
and shoot a film. In Armenia, we don’t need to spend millions and open
a Hollywood-like film studio but instead we need to create a digital
system and enable filmmakers to use their small sums to shoot films. It
will certainly bring out talented people who film make Armenian cinema
known to the world as Sergey Parajanov, Artavazd Peleshian and Henrik
Malian did. Cinema is a cultural warfare for our nation, which can be
accompanied with huge success. But, unfortunately, this way of thinking
is not specified neither in state institutions nor in the circle of
filmmakers because we are fearful that the country is not ready for
that yet. Perhaps those reasons are somehow justified but we need to
find a way out as we have great talent for filmmaking”, Arsine says.
Arsine Khanjian, who took part in most respectable film festivals
including Oscar, was impressed by the Golden Apricot film festival
and the opening ceremony at the Opera House. “I can say this was one
of those nice and easy-going openings. I had to close my eyes not to
see poor decoration of the stage at the opening ceremonies in
countries with mighty film industry”, she says.
Arsine Khanjian has great inner strength, endless humor, sincere and
contagious laughter. She explains why Atom Egoyan does not speak
Armenia, “I am a guilty Armenian woman, guilty mother, guilty in one
word. When I got acquainted with Atom Egoyan everybody expected that
he will learn fluent Armenian in a short while but he does not till
today though he understand pretty much. I felt obliged to teach him
Armenian at first but then I thought if his parents did not teach him
why should I”.
It was rather easy for Arsine to learn Armenian as she grew up in
Armenian community of Lebanon. Whereas in Canada it’s very difficult
to keep one’s national identity and language; one needs enormous
efforts to do that. “For that reason I could not teach Armenian
neither Atom nor our 12-year-old son Arshile. We keep the Armenian
soul by all means but it’s very difficult to keep the language as
everybody around speaks foreign languages. My son does not attend an
Armenian school but studies Armenian twice a week and know the Lord’s
Prayer and sings Our Fatherland (national anthem)”.
By Ruzan Poghosian