Renowned Turkish film director Fatih Akin was in Yerevan today to present his film on the Armenian Genocide – The Cut.
The main figure is Nazaret Manoogian, played by Tahar Rahim, an Armenian blacksmith who is separated from his wife and young twin daughters in the middle of the night by Turkish soldiers, who take him to a work camp, after which his town is cleared of Armenians.
He survives the forced labor in the desert and avoids having his throat slit when his would-be executioner takes pity and only pretends to kill him.
After Turkey’s defeat in the war, he begins a quest that takes him to Cuba and America in search of his missing daughters who have fled there, after their mother and the rest of their family were killed.
The 138-minute film with a budget of €15.5 million has been shot in Jordan, Germany, Cuba and Malta. The State Commission on Coordination of the Events for Commemoration of the 100thAnniversary of the Armenian Genocide also supported the creation of the film. The Cut premiered at the 71st Venice Festival on August 27.
Fatih Akin was born in 1979 to Turkish parents, who had moved to Germany in 1960s. He first visited Yerevan in 2010 within the framework of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival.
“It was a significant event, as it was a very sensitive moment for a man with of Turkish dscent to visit Armenia,” Akin told reporters in Yerevan.
“In the past it wasn’t even possible to use the word ‘genocide’ in Turkey. It’s not very easy today, but I believe in the freedom of speech. I think the freedom of speech is the fragile grace given to us,” he said.
