Release Date: 7/22/2003 Original Release: 2002 Format: DVD Length: 115 minutes Rating:R (MPAA) Rating Reason: violence, sexuality/nudity, and language UPC: 786936221008 Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Dramas, History, Theatrical Release, Film About Film, Holocaust, Filmmaking
Description
ARARAT, Atom Egoyan's mysterious drama about the horrors of the largely unknown Armenian genocide in Turkey, unrolls through a film within the film (also titled ARARAT). Jumping back and forth in time, Egoyan weaves together the lives of several people. Ari (Arsinee Khanjian), an art historian, is an advisor on the film. Her son Raffi (David Alplay) is part of the film crew. When Raffi travels to Armenia to gather some additional footage, he is detained by a customs agent (Christopher Plummer) and remains in custody for most of the film. Meanwhile, Raffi's stepsister and girlfriend Celia (Marie-Josee Croze) is haunted by her father's suicide. These and other stories within ARARAT are ostensibly linked through the film within a film. Yet, it is each character's quest for truth which binds them thematically and drives the plot. The film is populated with thematic twins, as each character's individual struggle is mirrored in the plight of the other characters. Egoyan works from his own script relying heavily on references to Arshile Gorky's painting "The Artist and his Mother" and Clarence Ussher's historical document, AN AMERICAN PHYSICIAN IN TURKEY.
DVD Features
Region 1 Keep Case Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.78 Letterbox - 1.78 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 - English Interactive Features: Interactive Menus Scene Access
'Ararat' is a very personal film for Atom Egoyan, a Canadian of Armenian descent who, with this movie, addresses the tragedy that befell the Armenians in WWI, as they were murdered by the Turks, in... Read the whole review at MatchFlick
