Review of Ararat

Introduction

You`ve probably never heard of it, and neither had I, it`s another of those films that only just made it to the cinema in the UK. It opened in April and it`s now on DVD. It won 5 Genie awards (a Canadian Oscar), as well as a Political Film Society award and a Writers Guild of Canada award.

In 1915, Turkey massacred something said to be in the region of one million Armenians, a genocide which they have yet to take responsibility for. The Canadian-Armenian director Atom Egoyan tries to tell this story, and its impact on Turks and Armenians ever since.

Video

A 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer which is average without really getting better or worse than that. It`s still pretty good, but not as good as you might expect given its tender age. Ok, the film itself (and consequently the DVD) didn`t have a massive budget, but I still expected a little more. There`s not much print damage though, which is nice. Colours are pretty good overall.

Audio

A DD2.0 stereo soundtrack, which isn`t ultra exciting. Dialogue is clean and crisp and everything can be heard just fine. The soundtrack is quite subtle and fits well with the tone of the film, cutting from war torn scenes, to more quiet and reflective pieces.

Features

Just a trailer, so we miss out on the following goodies from the region 1 disc:-

Audio commentary by director Atom Egoyan
Deleted scenes with optional commentary
"Making of Ararat" featurette
"Arsinee Khanjian on Ararat" featurette
Film Short "Portrait of Arshile" with optional commentary
Raffi`s video footage historical information

They sound quite interesting, so it`s a shame that we don`t get them - why do we get treated this way?

Conclusion

Whilst the central part of this story (the genocide) is something significant, the film itself is not. It jumps around all over the place. Sometimes you`re in 1915, then you might be in the 1930s, then you might be in the present. And you might be in the present watching a scene from 1915 being shot for a film. This film uses the "film within a film" technique, seen many times before, but it doesn`t handle it with a gentle touch, and it ends up being confusing and messy.

There are some nice scenes along the way, but they`re just scenes, and the film itself doesn`t tie them altogether nicely. At the end of the day, you just don`t gain much from watching it.

The DVD itself is standard fare, but if you want to buy the film, spend your cash in region 1 instead, where you`ll get lots of extras which should add something more to the film.

My advice would be to avoid.