Genocide & Egoyan
Canadian-Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan cannot help but continue to make
movies that address the themes of loss and the consequences of trauma,
because so much of his personal history is dictated by the loss his
grandparents' generation experienced during the Armenian Genocide. The
person that he is and the art that he creates cannot help but be a
reaction for one of the greatest traumas suffered and yet to be
collectively addressed by 20th and 21st century civilization.
While most critics and film fans believe that Egoyan's "Ararat" was his first film about the Armenian Genocide, a careful study of Egoyan's previous feature films will demonstrate that all his films address the issue of how one or how a group of people react and respond to loss. The theme of the trauma of loss, people's reaction to loss and the relationship of the people dealing with loss and trauma are what define Egoyan's films and screenplays.
In his first feature, "Next of Kin," Egoyan brings to life second generation Genocide survivors, who were forced midlife to move because of injustices they experienced in the country that their parents had found haven in after surviving the Genocide. Where Egoyan's characters, the Derian family, found themselves and where they had to move from is clearly the result of their parents being displaced from their ancestral homeland. The Derians would not have faced immigration, poverty and the reality of giving up their newborn son had it not been for the catastrophe of Genocide that their parents escaped.
What is more important in "Next of Kin" is how the Derians relate to one another as a result of un-addressable traumas their parents survived. First, the Derians demonstrate that they are in a mode of extreme self-preservation, that even the modern dresses that their daughter wants to wear and the freedom of self-expression she wants to engage in through art are inconceivable as they relate to the values that the Derians are engrained with preserving.
The second example of the Derian's dysfunctional psychology, again the result of Genocide, is their inability to deal with the loss of their son through adoption. Their inability to make peace with having to give up their son is a double edged sword when combined with the losses their parents experienced. When humans suffer from one trauma, the scientific community believes the trauma becomes part of their 'operating system' and all future incidents of change are perceived as more traumatizing that they truly are. Therefore, the forced adoption of their son is skewed in the Derians' minds, so much that when a stranger shows up and claims that he is their son, they accept him with open arms.
The best example of Egoyan addressing the Armenian Genocide in movies other than "Ararat" is in the film called "The Sweet Hereafter." This motion picture is about the deaths of children, who are killed when their school bus plunges into a frozen lake. What happens to a community after a traumatic, life-changing loss is the question that "The Sweet Hereafter" asks. With the film, Egoyan asks what the world should have asked about the victims of the Armenian Genocide and the other genocides that were to follow in the 20th century. What happens to the survivors? What happens to those who watch their families perish? What happens to the psychology and how does the fragile human psyche deal with such an incomprehensible event?
The perpetrator of incomprehensible acts of violence is the character Egoyan studies in "Felicia's Journey." At the center of this film is an abused, mocked and controlled child, the offspring of a selfish television star, who turns out to be a cold-hearted serial killer. In this film, the viewer sees how the human mind can set out to systematically and carefully plan the murder and execute the annihilation of other human beings. The killer in "Felicia's Journey" is an intelligent man, who uses his ability to manipulate reality, endear strangers, win their trust through empathy and then accomplish that which he planned to do – to kill. Thus, "Felicia's Journey" is a study of the victim, the Armenians, and the victimizer, the Ottoman Turks. The way the pregnant Felicia is won over, her resistance is lowered and then eventually poisoned is metaphoric of how the Armenian populations were manipulated to trust the government under whose rule they lived, taught to trust and then easily marched to their deaths.
In "The Adjuster," Egoyan explores moral versus material values by telling the story of an Armenian woman, who makes moral judgments as a movie censor, and her husband, who decides the material value of things lost in fires. "The Adjuster" is a classic study of the clash of materialism versus morality, and how a human internal dynamic of being married to one or the other make it impossible to relate to other humans whose dynamic is opposite theirs. The insurance adjuster, the materialist, is unable to understand his wife's morality driven existence, in which family and history that offer the moral values are center to her existence.
While loss and the trauma of Genocide make the adjuster's wife who she is, the untamed lands of the new world filmed by Egoyan -- the parcels of land upon which will be built new homes and new communities – define the adjuster and his mission to appease those who experience material losses in a culture of materialism. He demonstrates, by sleeping with the victims of loss, that morality is secondary to his goal to help the victims of fires make peace with their loss of material. In the contradictory world of the adjuster's wife, sharing one's life with siblings, nurturing and making moral judgments on the arts that the public will consume are what drive the third generation survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
Finally, how Armenians differ in their relationship to their cultures is the theme of "Calendar," in which a Middle-Eastern, an American and an Armenian from Armenia relate to one another. In the 'melting pot' of America, the American Armenian is allowed to divorce himself from his reality of a genocide survivor and has no emotional connection to his past, which are represented by the churches he is commissioned to photograph. Because of his disconnect with his culture, he is on a mission to find, through a series of unsuccessful dates, someone that he can relate to.
Opposite the American-Armenian post-Genocide experience is the photographer's wife from the Middle East, who has embraced survival and the dream of a homeland. Upon meeting the Yerevani Armenian, who is her driver during her and her husband's trip to Armenia, she realizes how much more connected the driver is to his homeland and her plight than the invisible American-Armenian. Through the dialogue of this film, the images of the homeland, the cold indifference of long-distance phone calls, Egoyan demonstrates how three groups of Armenians have evolved after the great trauma and incomprehensible loss of their people.
Though Egoyan may not have set out to address themes relating to the Armenian Genocide in his films, he, never-the-less, creates and is attracted to stories of loss and survival after a loss. After all an artist creates and expresses in his art themes that are unique to his or her experience. In Egoyan's case, what is biographically unique to him is the reality of his experience growing up as a third generation survivor of an event that shaped the characters and psychology of his grandparents, his parents, and in turn, the character of the artist that is Atom Egoyan.
While most critics and film fans believe that Egoyan's "Ararat" was his first film about the Armenian Genocide, a careful study of Egoyan's previous feature films will demonstrate that all his films address the issue of how one or how a group of people react and respond to loss. The theme of the trauma of loss, people's reaction to loss and the relationship of the people dealing with loss and trauma are what define Egoyan's films and screenplays.
In his first feature, "Next of Kin," Egoyan brings to life second generation Genocide survivors, who were forced midlife to move because of injustices they experienced in the country that their parents had found haven in after surviving the Genocide. Where Egoyan's characters, the Derian family, found themselves and where they had to move from is clearly the result of their parents being displaced from their ancestral homeland. The Derians would not have faced immigration, poverty and the reality of giving up their newborn son had it not been for the catastrophe of Genocide that their parents escaped.
What is more important in "Next of Kin" is how the Derians relate to one another as a result of un-addressable traumas their parents survived. First, the Derians demonstrate that they are in a mode of extreme self-preservation, that even the modern dresses that their daughter wants to wear and the freedom of self-expression she wants to engage in through art are inconceivable as they relate to the values that the Derians are engrained with preserving.
The second example of the Derian's dysfunctional psychology, again the result of Genocide, is their inability to deal with the loss of their son through adoption. Their inability to make peace with having to give up their son is a double edged sword when combined with the losses their parents experienced. When humans suffer from one trauma, the scientific community believes the trauma becomes part of their 'operating system' and all future incidents of change are perceived as more traumatizing that they truly are. Therefore, the forced adoption of their son is skewed in the Derians' minds, so much that when a stranger shows up and claims that he is their son, they accept him with open arms.
The best example of Egoyan addressing the Armenian Genocide in movies other than "Ararat" is in the film called "The Sweet Hereafter." This motion picture is about the deaths of children, who are killed when their school bus plunges into a frozen lake. What happens to a community after a traumatic, life-changing loss is the question that "The Sweet Hereafter" asks. With the film, Egoyan asks what the world should have asked about the victims of the Armenian Genocide and the other genocides that were to follow in the 20th century. What happens to the survivors? What happens to those who watch their families perish? What happens to the psychology and how does the fragile human psyche deal with such an incomprehensible event?
The perpetrator of incomprehensible acts of violence is the character Egoyan studies in "Felicia's Journey." At the center of this film is an abused, mocked and controlled child, the offspring of a selfish television star, who turns out to be a cold-hearted serial killer. In this film, the viewer sees how the human mind can set out to systematically and carefully plan the murder and execute the annihilation of other human beings. The killer in "Felicia's Journey" is an intelligent man, who uses his ability to manipulate reality, endear strangers, win their trust through empathy and then accomplish that which he planned to do – to kill. Thus, "Felicia's Journey" is a study of the victim, the Armenians, and the victimizer, the Ottoman Turks. The way the pregnant Felicia is won over, her resistance is lowered and then eventually poisoned is metaphoric of how the Armenian populations were manipulated to trust the government under whose rule they lived, taught to trust and then easily marched to their deaths.
In "The Adjuster," Egoyan explores moral versus material values by telling the story of an Armenian woman, who makes moral judgments as a movie censor, and her husband, who decides the material value of things lost in fires. "The Adjuster" is a classic study of the clash of materialism versus morality, and how a human internal dynamic of being married to one or the other make it impossible to relate to other humans whose dynamic is opposite theirs. The insurance adjuster, the materialist, is unable to understand his wife's morality driven existence, in which family and history that offer the moral values are center to her existence.
While loss and the trauma of Genocide make the adjuster's wife who she is, the untamed lands of the new world filmed by Egoyan -- the parcels of land upon which will be built new homes and new communities – define the adjuster and his mission to appease those who experience material losses in a culture of materialism. He demonstrates, by sleeping with the victims of loss, that morality is secondary to his goal to help the victims of fires make peace with their loss of material. In the contradictory world of the adjuster's wife, sharing one's life with siblings, nurturing and making moral judgments on the arts that the public will consume are what drive the third generation survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
Finally, how Armenians differ in their relationship to their cultures is the theme of "Calendar," in which a Middle-Eastern, an American and an Armenian from Armenia relate to one another. In the 'melting pot' of America, the American Armenian is allowed to divorce himself from his reality of a genocide survivor and has no emotional connection to his past, which are represented by the churches he is commissioned to photograph. Because of his disconnect with his culture, he is on a mission to find, through a series of unsuccessful dates, someone that he can relate to.
Opposite the American-Armenian post-Genocide experience is the photographer's wife from the Middle East, who has embraced survival and the dream of a homeland. Upon meeting the Yerevani Armenian, who is her driver during her and her husband's trip to Armenia, she realizes how much more connected the driver is to his homeland and her plight than the invisible American-Armenian. Through the dialogue of this film, the images of the homeland, the cold indifference of long-distance phone calls, Egoyan demonstrates how three groups of Armenians have evolved after the great trauma and incomprehensible loss of their people.
Though Egoyan may not have set out to address themes relating to the Armenian Genocide in his films, he, never-the-less, creates and is attracted to stories of loss and survival after a loss. After all an artist creates and expresses in his art themes that are unique to his or her experience. In Egoyan's case, what is biographically unique to him is the reality of his experience growing up as a third generation survivor of an event that shaped the characters and psychology of his grandparents, his parents, and in turn, the character of the artist that is Atom Egoyan.
