A Task of Enormity Armenian-Canadians Egoyan, Khanjian Discuss Creating ëAraratí by Ky N. Nguyen Director Atom Egoyan said of the legacy of the relatively unknown Armenian genocide in Turkey during World War I: ìI think that the Nazis were able to act with confidence because they had seen how effective this form of mass murder was 30 years before.î With ìArarat,î the acclaimed filmmaker tackles the difficult task of creating on celluloid the memory of the genocideóstill refuted by todayís Turkish government. Before an important congressional screening, I discussed ìAraratî with Armenian-Canadians Egoyan and his wife, actress ArsinÈe Khanjian (of Egoyanís ìFeliciaís Journey,î ìThe Sweet Hereafterî and ìExoticaî as well as Olivier Assayasís ìIrma Vepî and ìLate August, Early Septemberî), in the cafÈ of the Four Seasons Hotel. Both Egoyan and Khanjian have orphaned grandparents who survived the genocide. Egoyan began, ìSince no widely released dramatic film had ever cinematically presented the genocide, it was important that any film project would need to show what happened. We live in a popular culture that demands images before we allow ourselves to believe, and it would be unimaginable to deal with this history without presenting what the event looked like.î He continued, ìFrom the moment I began to write the script, I was drawn to the idea of what it means to tell a story of horror. In this case, the horror is about the historical events that took place in Turkey over 85 years ago, and also the enduring horror of living with something so cataclysmic, which has been systematically denied. ìWithout getting into the mechanics of that denialóthere are a number of books and articles on that issueóit is important to note that the role of the director in my film-within-the-film is monumental. Edward and his screenwriter Rouben are faced with an awesome task. If their film seems too earnest or extreme in its depictions, itís because they are the first people to cinematically present these ëunspeakable horrors.íî Khanjian remembered, ìThe first day I walked on the historical set for [Edwardís] ëArarat,í I cried. I didnít even feel the emotion overtaking me Ö suddenly my face was just wet. I was realizing this was the first time in my life I was being in touch with an environment and with a group of people in their costumes and in their habitat to which I had no prior exposure. Of course, I knew much about the genocide and my own history, but to see a re-creation of that time and place was just overwhelming for me.î Egoyan explained, ìI decided to create a dysfunctional film-within-the-film in order to generate the drama in the present day. All of the central characters in my ëAraratí are somehow connected to the making of Edwardís ëArarat,í and most of the conflicts that occur in the contemporary story are related to the unresolved nature of not only the genocide, but also the difficulties and compromises faced by the representation of this atrocity. How does an artist speak the unspeakable? What does it mean to listen? What happens when it is denied? ìThese are hugely complicated issues, and I certainly have enormous expectations of my viewer. While my work may have been different if a more popular movie version of the Armenian genocide had already existed, this was not the case. Thus the screenplay had to tell the story of what happened, why it happened, why itís denied, why it continues to happen, and what happens when you continue to deny,î said Egoyan. According to Khanjian, ìThe film is more about the people involved in making the historical epic ëAraratí than the historical epic itself. Atom has not made an educational filmÖ. Itís about a group of charactersótwo familiesóall who have a history of their own that is not quite told or at least not heard.î She added, ìItís about them discovering and coming to terms with the truths and denials in their own lives, just like the Armenians have been trying to do for almost 100 years. What the characters ultimately learn is their issues can go nowhere if there is no communication, if there are no truths being told, if there are no denials being admitted. They all come to realize that they have to tell something and then trust the fact what they are saying will be heard. It is only at that level of engagement they can move on with their lives and with each other.î Egoyan elaborated, ìëAraratí is a story about the transmission of trauma. It is cross-cultural and inter-generational. The grammar of the screenplay uses every possible tense available, from the past, present and future, to the subjective and the conditional. I firmly believe that this was the only way the story could be told. It is dense and complicated because the issues are so complex. Ultimately, one has to trust the viewer to sort out how everything is connected, and how the collective human linkage of action and responsibility is both the wonder and tragedy of our condition.î Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.