SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTORS PAULO AND VITTORIO TAVIANI
Der Spiegel Online, Germany
Feb 14 2007
"Why Conceal the Armenian Tragedy?"
The film "The Lark Farm" promises to be among the more controversial
at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. SPIEGEL spoke with the film’s
directors about the Armenian tragedy and how slaughtering the innocent
is part of human history.
Vittorio (left) and Paolo Taviani on the set of "The Lark Farm."
SPIEGEL: You don’t hold back in showing the atrocities committed on
the Armenians. Aren’t you concerned about shocking your audience?
Vittorio Taviani: Each scene was historically verified, even the
most gruesome. We didn’t want to hide anything. The slaughtering of
the innocent is part of human history and, since the Greek tragedies,
part of art. On Sundays our priests deliver sermons about infanticide
in Bethlehem. It remains nothing but a word when it is said in
church. It is the cinema’s job to show it — not just to emphasize
dramatic camera angles, but to quietly show it.
Paolo Taviani: The film isn’t just about Turkey in 1915, but also
about the present. There have been similar scenes in the Balkans,
in Rwanda and in Sudan. We Italians murdered, and the Germans murdered.
The horror can happen any time and any place. Why conceal the Armenian
tragedy?
SPIEGEL: The Armenian genocide remains a blind spot in Turkey’s
national identity. Hrant Dink, an Armenian-Turkish journalist, was
murdered only recently. Isn’t there a concern that the film could
trigger violent reactions among Turkish nationalists, similar to the
reactions to the Danish cartoons?
Vittorio Taviani: We didn’t think about that when we made the film.
Paolo Taviani: We aren’t calling it genocide. Whether it was genocide
or not is for the historians to decide. We call it a tragedy. This
is not a documentary film. We have no intention of supporting any
theories with our films. We relate one page from the history books
through the fates of our characters. The truth is always only its own
truth. At this point in our lives, we wanted to recount a collective
experience through a series of personal fates, each of them unique
and distressing in its own right. After all, we tell the story of the
impossible love between a young Turk and an Armenian woman. The film
ends with a trial in which Youssuf, the Turkish soldier, testifies
about the crimes. It is not a film against Turkey. On the contrary,
it is a film for everyone in Turkey who confronts history. After all,
100,000 people demonstrated in Istanbul against the murder of Hrant
Dink. I am convinced that the film will be shown in Turkish schools
within a few years.
FROM THE MAGAZINE Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article
in your publication. SPIEGEL: Why did you cast a German actor Moritz
Bleibtreu in the role of the good Turk?
Vittorio Taviani: The director is entitled to select the faces to
go with his fantasies irrespective of nationality. Bleibtreu is
remarkable. The cinema is always illusion. Even (Italian director
Luchino) Visconti cast an American, Burt Lancaster, in his film
"Gattopardo."
Paolo Taviani: Besides, we have cast a well-known actor of Turkish
heritage, Tcheky Karyo, in the film. Karyo told us that after this
film, he knew that he hadn’t become an actor for nothing.
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