TEASER http://youtu.be/YLZ7icWDGtE

DIRECTOR'S BIO http://avproduction.am/?ln=am&page=person&id=2315&name=Arnaud_Khayadjanian

Why should the project be supported ?

In addition to the universal interest of this theme as we near the 100-year commemoration of the Armenian massacre in April 2015, the Armenian Diaspora means that the potential target audience is present in numerous countries around the world.

SYNOPSIS

The story of my great-grandparents forms the point of departure for my exploration of a little-known facet of the Armenian massacre: that of the Righteous Turks who saved lives in 1915. By talking to the descendants of the Righteous and those who escaped, I re-examine these family legends and their transmission, both in France and Turkey.

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

From April 1915 to July 1916, almost one million two hundred thousand Armenians from Anatolia and the Armenian Highlands were exterminated in mass deportations and massacres. Many witnesses recounting the horror of the massacres have also told of Turks and Kurds who saved the lives of Armenians. Despite such testimonies, these anonymous people are the forgotten heroes of the Armenian massacre.

At the age of 20, I learnt my family’s story; that it was in this way that my great-grandparents, Vahan and Anna, were saved. A few years later, I saw the painting The Good Samaritan by Aimé-Nicolas Morot, and the story came flooding back to me.

PRODUCER'S NOTE

Arnaud is from the considerable Armenian community which settled in the Rhône Valley in about 1920. He forms part of the generation that is starting to reassemble the fragments of a dismantled memory in order to transmit it.

From the start of our collaboration, I was struck by his responsiveness, the fluidity of his writing and his particularly sensitive approach to a subject as difficult as the Armenian massacre.

Although he shows us both the story of his family and History with a capital H, he is not interested in revenge or making demands.