The surprise film of the year may well be
La promesa (2016), about the Ottoman Empire's massacre of 1.5 million Armenians (the Armenian Genocide), on which Turkey is still in denial. A hundred years ago, both my parents' families escaped certain death. That makes me the son of holocaust survivors. A part of me does not want to revisit the 1915 horrors. And yet I know that by doing so we understand better our current world. What choice do we have but to face up to such human cruelty in the past if we are indeed to transcend it in our time? Growing up in my Armenian family in Cairo, Egypt, I recall fondly the sound of Turkish, a language I learned from my grandma Peka and grandpa Asadour, who were from the village of Adana [today in Turkey]. Where cultures coexisted, as they did in that part of Eurasia, they shared the same foods and beverages; however, after we emigrated to Toronto, my mother Lucie would insist on only serving "Armenian coffee" - not Turkish. In my autobiography, "The Life Of A Children's Troubadour" [first published in 1999], I included first hand accounts of my parents' families' flight from annihilation. (...) Both my parents' parents came from the part of Armenia that was under Turkish occupation at the turn of the century, part of the substantial Armenian territory that international geopolitics left within Turkish borders [after World War One]. Although Armenian was my mother tongue, in my family Turkish was spoken as well, especially with Peka Grandma. Like all Armenians of my generation, I was taught from a young age about the Armenian Genocide, the systematic deportation and death of a million or more Armenians by Turkish authorities. April 24, 1915, is the origin of the annual April 24th Remembrance of Armenians' greatest tragedy, one that nationals inside the country and abroad observe. The hope is that one day officials in Turkey will open their archives and concede the past infamy, so that reconciliation may begin the healing of this gaping wound in the Armenian community. (...) Decades later, that my family survived the genocide fills me with an obligation to revisit those stories, and to share them once again. Seeing the film "The Promise" opened up the ancient wound once again. Armenian intellectuals rounded up and killed, entire villages evacuated, the horrors of that dreadful time reminded me of the historical pain my parents carried all their lives. Once again, I was moved to tears. And I sense that if millions see this film around the world, they might understand that had the international community been able to come to the aid of the Armenians in 1915, the World War II holocaust of Jews perpetrated by Nazi Germany might have been prevented. Imagine that change in the course of history. I urge you to see this exceptional movie, "The Promise": a film which deals with the Armenian tragedy artfully. You'll be entertained, informed, and moved to tears. [2017]
