Armenian-Canadian director Egoyan considers film in Turkey

Though known the world over for his critically acclaimed independent films, Atom Egoyan is most synonymous in Turkey with his 2002 film “Ararat,” which examined the events of 1915, attracting great anger from Turkish nationalist circles. Now, however, the Canadian-Armenian director says he could shoot a film in Turkey.

A joint project with Turkish directors “would be a good step toward dialogue,” Egoyan told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review during a recent interview in Yerevan, where he was celebrating his 50th birthday along with his wife, Armenian-Canadian actress Arsinée Khanjian.

A fan of Turkish Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk, and especially his novel “Snow,” Egoyan said it would “be a pleasure” to adapt the writer’s work to the silver screen.

Egoyan noted he was following a new generation of Turkish directors, including Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Semih Kaplanoğlu, and said he had had a chance to meet several Turkish directors during the International Golden Apricot Film Festival in Yerevan two weeks ago.

‘Ararat’ and Dink

“Ararat,” which provided a unique and artistic view of the tragedy in eastern Anatolia during World War I, elicited a strong reaction not only from Turks, but from the Armenian diaspora as well, Egoyan said.

“The diaspora wanted ‘Ararat’ to be a more striking ‘genocide’ film,” Egoyan said. “I don’t blame them but there was a fact that they forgot: It was my film, not theirs. More than the incidents that took place in 1915, their effects on the younger generation concerned me.”

Despite the Turkish criticism of the film, the director said he believed the country had begun to undergo a positive transformation following the 2007 assassination of Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin and editor of the daily Agos.

“As two publics, we need to speak about these incidents without a mediator,” he said. “Since we don’t speak, the West has not hesitated to [exploit] our wounds for political interests.”

Speaking about the current situation between Turkish and Armenian people, Egoyan said he deeply believed that the iron curtain between both peoples would be torn down as past incidents became topics of discussion.

In contrast to the commonly held view in the diaspora, Egoyan said he believed opening the closed border gate between Turkey and Armenia was a significant step toward a peaceful future.

“Lifting borders will increase peace and welfare in the region,” the director said. “It will provide an environment for dialogue.”

‘I am proud of my roots’

Born in Cairo before moving to Victoria, Canada, at a young age, Egoyan said he was proud to have family roots in Arapgir, a district in the eastern Turkish province of Malatya. “My biggest wish is to visit this land of my roots at least once.”

Though he has long wished to visit Turkey, Egoyan said he had not accepted any invitations from the International Istanbul Film Festival.

“The festival management set the condition that I would not use the word ‘genocide’ if I came to Turkey,” he said. “It was not possible for me to accept this demand. This is why I refused all invitations.”

However, a member of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture Arts, which organizes the festival, told the Daily News that such a demand was impossible because Egoyan had never been officially invited to the festival. Moreover, the official said, the foundation had never any official talk with the director.

Although known publicly as an Armenian director, Egoyan can only understand Armenian, but does not speak the language. “It is completely my fault to not speak Armenian. I did not put any effort to learn it,” he said, adding that he did not have much linguistic talent.

Nonetheless, he said he could understand Turkish, even if he could not speak it; like many Armenians from the diaspora, he said his family occasionally spoke Turkish at home during his childhood.