The main focus of Atom Egoyan's "Ararat" is the Armenian Genocide. Beyond that it addresses the nature of truth and its representation through art (such as the issue of whether a movie should recreate historical events). The genocide itself is also the subject of the recent movie "The Promise".We may never know the full extent of what happened in April 1915, or why the genocide faded from memory. What we do know is that suppressing the memory of a tragedy creates the risk that it will get repeated. Indeed, it was only thanks to the reports from some witnesses - among them Clarence Ussher - that the Armenian Genocide came to light.I recommend the movie, and I hope that in addition to drawing attention to the genocide, it draws attention to how World War I caused much of the bloodshed that has happened since.

I have seen other film by Atom Egoyan. I respect him as an artist.This film, Ararat, is lovingly made and very sensitive to a horrid subject. I found the acting very good, especially that by Christopher Plummer and David Alpay. I am shocked to see how limited the release was in the U.S. 6 screens, in the whole country? This film deserves far better treatment.I am also dismayed by the official IMDb blurb "Interrogated by a customs officer, a young man recounts how his life was changed during the making of a film about the Armenian genocide claims." Very good until the last word, "claims." Political correctness has no such place here. The only country in the world which continues to deny the Armenian Holocaust is Turkey.

I came across the movie Ararat while doing research for a paper I was writing for school. I watched it hoping that it would give me further insight into the Armenian Genocide. I can honestly say that this movie not only enforced the research I had done, but also led me to new topics I had not yet researched myself. I strongly believe in knowing about the events in a movie before watching it. Otherwise, you can sit through an entire film and not understand the meaning or significance that it holds. For instance, if you watch a film on Gallipolli (a very important battle for the Australians in the First World War) you may not know what it means for the people who were involved (like most people who live outside of Australia). However, if you take time to do a little research before hand you can easily watch a film about it and understand its importance. That said, I believe that this applies to Ararat in the same way. If you don't take the time to research the Armenian Genocide along with other aspects of the film such as the Van Resistance, Arshile Gorky, Clarence Ussher or even Aghtamar Island, you can never fully understand this movie (or any other film about the Armenian Genocide as well). I thought this movie was the perfect mix of storyline and documentation. In my opinion, it presented the facts of the Armenian Genocide accurately and effectively, without turning into a documentary about it. It showed how it still affects the Armenians of today, even though it happened a little bit less than one hundred years ago. How there could still be such denial and hatred between the people who were involved. The fact that we know so much about the holocaust that Adolf Hitler carried out and so little about this Holocaust, that started only 18 years before Hitler came to power, is shocking and deeply upsetting. I recommend this film highly, as not only an important piece on this historical event, but also an excellent film. I must applaud Atom Egoyan for doing this event justice and bringing it to life on the screen.

I wanted to see this movie because of 2 reasons-one, to learn more about the Armenian genocide and second, I've been told that Atom Egoyan is a very good director. Unfortunately i must say I've been disappointed in both cases. First of all even thou the movie is about the Armenian genocide, it's not focused on it but constantly shifting to some characters that don't contribute anything to the story(like the step sister and the custom officer)and half of the film just dealing with and developing this characters. And about Atom Egoyan's abilities as a director I've been disappointed the same, the acting is pretty bad, the music isn't good either.