‘Never again…’ program successful - Harutyun Khachatryan

The film show of the “Never again…” program of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival at the Maxim Gorki Theatre was followed by an interesting event – Armenians and Turks distributed meals among the audience.

“Both Germans and Turks were well prepared for the Berlin festival. Arsineh Khanjian, Atom Egoyan and Carla Karapetyan – all of them were sitting next to Turks,” Founding Director of the Golden Apricot Film Festival and People’s Artist of Armenia Harutyun Khachatryan told reporters on Tuesday.

Films will be shown in seven countries: Belarus, Bulgaria, France, Germany and Turkey.

“It went on well, especially with 80-85 percent of the audience being foreign citizens interested in the Armenian Genocide. The films helped everyone to know the historical truth. The best-known German and French newspapers published serious articles,” Mr Khachatryan said.

The opening ceremony of the film festival in Belarus was attended by all the ambassadors except for the Turkish ambassador.

The program devoted to the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide at the Sophia Film Festival included three films – Harutyun Khachatryan’s “Endless Escape, Eternal Return”, the Taviani brothers’ “The Lark Farm” and Fatih Akin’s “The Scar”. Besides Sophia, screenings were also organized in the cities of Plovdiv and Varna.

The film program will be completed at the Moscow international film festival, on May 19-26.

This year the films are dedicated to the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide.

Raffi Movsisyan, "Never again..." Program Coordinator, noted that the film shows in the states that have not official recognized the Armenian Genocide proved to be serious political events.

The following film selection principles were applied: artistic symbolism in the films dedicated to the Armenian Genocide, including documentaries. Thirty films were selected.

Susanna Khachatryan, Coordinator of the Armenian-Turkish film project, said that not only new films, but also classic ones were screened at the festival.