On Ararat an Armenian Movie

Art and literature have always been applied as a favorite way of conveying human experiences through centuries to next generations. However, sometimes they have been not used as art for art’s sake. Utilitarian literature and art have usually been abused to misrepresent facts and real human history. World War I was a catastrophic disaster for the whole world, especially for the Muslim people living in the Ottoman empire territory and neighboring regions. Since then the separated small countries have been suffering periodical catastrophes afterword. Literature and art, consequently, were affected by them. According to the attitude of the literary figures and artists toward those historical experiences and human sufferings, their productions have tried to be effective on the world’s attitude toward those events. Ararat is one of them. It is an Armenian movie that was produced in Canada and won ۲۰۰۳’s Canadian Film Festival first prize. The main character of this movie is an Armenian young boy who travels to the city of Van in Türkiye and remember his nation’s past experiences during World War I in the city, according to the producers’ point of view. The main episodes are the flashbacks to the war between Armenian people and Turkic troops in Van through which war crimes are depicted to arouse the audience’s hatred toward Turks in the world. The film producers have inefficiently tried to produce a show through which make the world believe that there has been a genocide by Turkic troops against Armenian people living in the region during World War I. While western world is trying to condemn all hate speeches toward other races, ethnicities and nations around the world, the production of such a film in a country which obviously declares herself as one the most democratic countries in the world does not seem so appropriate to their democratic slogans. Through this essay the researcher will try to analyze it and depict some facts that the producers have tried to misrepresent. Because it is a movie that has dealt with the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and the Armenians living in the territory before World War I.