AN UPSIDE DOWN PROPAGANDA

Yerkir.am
June 09, 2006

Stereotypes are awful and mean. Monten has said that an idea is hard
to get into a fool’s head, but once there, it is even harder to get
it out.

Stereotypes formed under habits and traditions are even more awful
than ideas.

It has become a tradition for TV channels to screen movies like
“Nahapet,” ” Missing,” and “Miro of Gorge” on each April 24. In more
recent years, films like Henry Verno’s “Mairig,” Egoyan’s “Ararat”
as well as other films, including “Aram” became additions to this
list. While it makes sense to show those films on the Genocide
Commemoration Day, it makes no sense at all for big and small TV
channels to screen films like “Zangezour,” “Sevan Fishermen,” “Boys
of Band,” and “Mexican Diplomats,” on May 28. All these films mock
the idea of independence that we celebrate on May 28.

“Zangezur,” for example, mocks severely the national hero, Nzhdeh. How
long should we tolerate this film shot under the personal order of
Stalin and falsifying our past? I am not advocating destroying these
films – after all, they represent the history of our film industry
and thus our history. History about how history was falsified. But
why should we show them on the day when we are celebrating our
independence?

How do I have to explain my children why the Armenian general was so
coward, low and funny?

The best way to screen these films would be with a preceding
explanation by a historian and an art critic. But even then, they
are not fit to be shown on May 28. All these films depict how the
‘heroes,’ who mainly are foreigners – Russians, or sometimes even
Turks – destroy our independence. Why, then, are we surprised that
this nation doesn’t really care for its independence?