GOLDEN LARK ON THE APRICOT FARM, OR HOW TAVIANIS TURNED ONE INTO TWO
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir.am
13-07-2007 10:44:20

For four years now the film festival called the Golden Apricot is
part of the summer of Yerevan. I haven’t followed the festival and
mainly witnessed the symbols of the festival, such as the apricot
jam and bread, which, if I am not mistaken, was the symbol of the
second festival, and the symbol of the fourth festival are apparently
Chaplin’s suit and hat but from the back to show the wings of an
angel or not to show that the buttons have come off which are now
perhaps in the house of one of Chaplin’s fans after the death of
which nobody knows where the buttons are lying to return them back
to their place. Or maybe the suit is not Chaplin’s at all but the
result of computer animation. Certainly, it is not important.

Not the suit decorates the festival but the films and the
participants. They say the films are very good, and the participants
are well-known.

I have no doubt. How could the Armenian festival be ordinary? How could
good films and well-known filmmakers not come to our festival? Why
are so many apricots for? Well, leave alone apricots, we would eat
them and not let them get spoilt, at worst we would export them to
Russia but what would the well-known filmmakers tell their children if
they did not come to the film festival? If there is someone who knows
what they must tell, they don’t have to speak up. Most importantly,
the filmmakers do not know what they are going to tell, therefore,
perhaps, they come to the Golden Apricot, here the questions they
are asked are not difficult to answer. Who cannot say how they feel
in Armenia, for how many bananas they would not exchange an apricot,
19+15 equals 1915 not 34, how many books they are going to write and
how many films they are going to make about the Armenian genocide?

Moreover, it is enough to write a book or make half a film about the
genocide and at least for the Armenians you become one of the giants
of world cinematography, and you don’t know if you are lucky that
you haven’t died to have one of the streets of Yerevan named after
you or you are unlucky and did not enjoy this honor? The meaning and
the message of the book or the film is not important to anyone. It is
important to involve a personage of a wild Turk, it does not matter
what other personages there are. They already have the prize of the
president of Armenia the Taviani brothers can be proud of whose film
"The Lark Farm" is the treasure of the fourth Golden Apricot. By
the way, they got the prize for this film, the awarders of the prize
think, for their significant contribution to the recognition of the
Armenian genocide.

However, as soon as we get acquainted with the film by the Taviani
brothers, we find out that it contradicts to the Armenian unwritten
concept of the recognition of the genocide and the Turkish-Armenian
relation in general.

With their film the Taviani brothers demolished some of our traditional
ideas which are not only ideas but cornerstones of the "national
identity" for the Armenians. The film is about the mutual feeling of
the Armenian girl and the Turkish soldier which is referred to by most
people as love. But didn’t the Tavianis know that it is not customary
for Armenians to love a Turkish soldier? What does it mean to love a
Turk? Well, has no Dashnak watched this film? Well, let her love once,
but in the same film the girl falls in love with the second Turk. It
is already too much.

How can one love two Turks in one film? Meanwhile, this film not
only gets the prize of the president but also a greater part of the
teartorn opening of the festival is devoted to it. It is devoted to
a film which razes to the ground the invincible image of the Armenian
woman showing how they enter the tents of the Turkish soldiers while
migrating, for an intercourse in return for a piece of bread for their
children. How could an Armenian woman do such a thing? Meanwhile,
we were taught that the Armenian women would prefer to plunge into
the gorge but would never have an affair with a Turk.

The classic Armenian patriotism had never undergone such a strong blow
before. Is there no real Dashnak in this country to voice protest
against cinematography and demonstratively burned the film of the
Lark Farm in front of the memorial to the victims of the festival,
even if he had to step on the virgin circle of the eternal fire like
the young Dashnaks did in the morning of April 24, not of 1915 but
of 2007 when they tried to burn the Turkish flag on the eternal fire
but the water that came from above people call rain did not let the
fire catch the flag? Because one must sometimes look up to walk.

However, no matter in what direction you look, first the eyes should
open to perceive that there are human traits which are the same for
all the nations, that man is beyond propaganda, politics, national
liberation, who was created with the image of God, which one must
open their eyes to see and not to step on. And the Tavianis perhaps
deserve a prize for their contribution to opening eyes.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress