A NEW FILM ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AT ‘MOSCOW’ CINEMA
By Tamar Minasian
AZG Armenian Daily #173
28/09/2005
Cinema
On October 16, “Moscow” cinema will show the premiere of “Arakel”,
film director Zohrap Bek-Gasparents told journalists yesterday. The
movie depicts events of 1910-15 in Eastern Armenia. It is a story
of a frustrated love that continues and gains momentum as deported
Armenian workers and intellectuals carry out their exile. “This is
a real story that happened to my grandpa’s brother. On this road it
is love that saves them, love that is peculiar only to Armenians and
their faith in God”, the filmmaker said.
The preparatory works of the film began in December of the last
year. The film was shot in Lori, Gyumri, in the surroundings of
the Lake Sevan and Yerevan. The budget of “Arakel” amounted to
$100.000. The film director thinks that this is a very small sum for
a fiction but it’s more important that one has a wish to shoot. Zohrap
Bek-Gasparents thinks that everybody should work hardly in his sphere
to gradually approach the day of Armenian Genocide’s international
recognition.
The film is currently being translated into Russian, English and
French. The authors of the film will make every effort to show it
in Turkey. They also work to represent the film at international
festivals and have so far made several arrangements.
“We have to go back to our faith. We can only pin our hopes on our
God and us. The Armenians are very forgiving. If someone apologizes
for a crime he committed he is sure to be forgiven. As far as our
neighbor lacks nobility to say sorry, we have to present as many
films and books as needed to make them understand”.