Photo: www.festival-cannes.com
Serge Avedikian
French-Armenian film director Serge Avedikian received Sunday the Palme d'Or for Short Film at the 63rd Festival de Cannes for his 15-minute film ‘Chiennes D’Historie’ (‘Barking Island’), the initial title of which was ‘Chienne de vie’ (Life's a Bitch).
The prize-winning film indirectly tells about the Armenian Genocide committed in the Ottoman Turkey early last century.
Avedikian, receiving the prize from Canadian-Armenian film director Atom Egoyan and actor Michelle Rodriguez, stated, “I make films so that the story between my grandfather and my Armenian children in Paris is not broken.”
The film tells the story of the eradication of Constantinople’s dogs by Young Turks. According to official data, in 1910, there were about 100,000 dogs in Constantinople. Young Turks, who headed the Ottoman Turkish government then, aiming to eradicate 30,000 stray dogs within a night, moved them to a deserted island, where they died.
“Of course, the hidden sense of the film is the Armenian Genocide,” Avedikian said on his visit to Armenia last November.
“We cannot forget that the same Young Turks organized and horrifyingly committed the massacre of 30,000 Armenians in 1909,” the film director added.
According to him, such films have a serious impact on the psychology and way of thinking of the Turkish nation. Last year, Turkish intelligentsia members watched the film at a private showing. According to Avedikian, they understood the real essence of the film’s message.
On July 11-15, “Barking Island” will be shown during the Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan.
Actor, film director, scriptwriter and producer 55-year-old Serge Avedikian was born in Yerevan, to a family repatriated from France; however, in 1970s, his parents returned to France.
Avedikian starred in 20 feature and 30 TV films.
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