Ararat Page #2
to place her
on a pedestal of life.
Let me look at you son.
You're missing a button!
It must have fallen off...
Hold your hand in front of it.
Like this?
Yes.
I'm just so shocked
to see you here.
I've seen all your films
and I really...
- Please. Please.
- We're the ones
who are overwhelmed by this.
I've been writing
this screenplay for five years,
done as much research
as possible
and you come up with this.
- With what?
- Well, that Gorky was a child
during the rebellion in Van,
that he was there.
It's amazing.
- My mother
was a genocide survivor.
All my life, I promised to make
a film to tell her story,
how she suffered.
And now,
we are making this film.
- I'm not understanding
something.
Is Gorky in your film?
- Not yet.
- As you were speaking,
we got very excited
about the idea of working
him in. As another character.
Well, not an entirely
new character,
but a character
we could build on.
See, this amazing artist
as a young kid...
It would be great
to have you as a consultant.
- You have her photos, a gift
from the ashes of all
that has been destroyed.
We can open this gift together.
- What's going on?
- Why did you bring up my dad?
Well, he didn't run away.
Okay, my mum just had to
distance herself from him.
- Huh. To save the family.
- He wasn't a terrorist.
- I didn't say he was.
- You said he was a terrorist.
- Did I? Well,
that way.
I mean, he was about to
assassinate a diplomat.
- He was a freedom fighter.
Celia, there's a difference.
- Sure, it was
a really cool way to go.
A lot better than my dad...
jumping off a cliff.
- Jumping.
- He committed suicide.
- Well, that's new.
I thought the story was my mom
pushed him off the cliff.
- Story.
You think l'm making up a story?
- No, it's...
it's not what I meant.
- Raffi, l'm saying
that what happened
to my father matters.
I know that no one else cares,
but it matters to me.
- Well, then how
do I make it matter,
what happened to my father?
- You just do.
- How?
- You go there.
And you stick it in here.
And you listen to it beat.
Beat all night, all day.
That way, you never forget.
- Mount Ararat.
When I was a boy,
my mother used to tell me
this was ours.
Even though it was so far away.
And I used to dream
of a way to approach it,
to make it belong to who I was,
to who I became.
- Marty,
this book is the key
to your character.
It's the actual journal
of Clarence Ussher,
published in Boston
and New York in 1917.
Every scene in this film
is based on this document.
Think of it.
It is the true story
of a man who sees
and is sickened by it.
So... so you can't play it...
- l've read this book.
As well as every available
piece of archival material
that so much as hints
at the region or these people
or the Armenian genocide.
I'm currently rereading
the Bible with Ussher in mind,
so beyond that,
it's pretty much...
up to my imagination.
And now l'm here
to make a film with Edward...
Saroyan.
Okay?
- This painting was very,
very popular even 100 years ago,
when it was painted.
And it's very popular now.
People love this painting.
And I think it's because...
because it's such a warm, safe
picture of two little kids.
We get the feeling that these
two kids in front of the fire,
warming themselves
after their bath...
- How'd it go?
- Think it went great.
- Did you get it?
Did he like you?
- I think so.
[Ring!]
Hello.
Yeah. Oh my God!
Oh my God!
- Good news?
- He just got a big part.
In a movie.
- Let me call you right back.
'Cause l'm in a gallery
and I can't really talk.
- Do you play a good guy
or a bad guy?
- I play a very, very,
very bad man.
Rah!!!
Rah!
Outside the city of Van,
Eastern Turkey, 1915
Just look at them!
Nice and comfortable... sipping
their coffee.
No idea what's about to hit them.
Let me take a shot...
You couldn't shoot a cow!
There's another twenty...
twenty five...
creeping up on us...
And in the front...
one chicken.
Aim!
Fire!
- Leave your weapons outside!
Get him inside.
Get his clothes off.
And get him ready for surgery.
To make sure that we get help,
l'm sending each of you out to
deliver a copy of this letter.
[Armenian]
The letter says to Americans
or any foreign consul,
that there are internal troubles
in Van.
[Armenian]
So inform
the American government
that American lives
are in danger.
[Armenian]
- And cut.
- That's a cut.
- Okay, everybody.
- Everything you see here is
based on what my mother told me.
What is it?
- You wouldn't be able to see
Mount Ararat from Van.
- Well, yes, but I thought
it would be important.
- But it's not true.
- It's true in spirit.
- See what you can do, okay?
And let me know.
Okay, I gotta go.
Yeah, I gotta get off.
Okay, l'II talk to you later.
Okay, bye.
Sorry, I had a call.
- Rouben, Ani's confused
about the mountain, Ararat.
She has noticed quite correctly
that it would not be seen
from Van.
- Well, we thought
we could stretch things a bit.
I mean, it's such
an identifiable symbol
and given the moment in history
that we're trying to show,
l just...
- So it's something
you could justify?
- Sure. Poetic license.
- Where do you get those?
- Wherever you can.
- So that's my job?
To let you feel better
about distorting things?
- The young boy in our film
gets sent by Ussher
to deliver a letter.
He gets caught by the Turks.
- That's the character
we'd make into Gorky.
- How would you do that?
- Okay. By April 1915,
the Turks have completely
surrounded the Armenian quarter.
Within the quarter,
inside these fortified walls,
the American mission, run by
a Dr. Clarence Ussher. Okay?
Outside, a few hundred men
armed with ancient guns
are surrounded
by well-armed troops
with the latest
in European artillery.
Miraculously,
through their ingenuity,
or their teamwork,
they're able to hold
the Armenian position,
but they're completely isolated.
They're cut off
from the outside world.
Ussher has to somehow get word
to the outside world
about what's about to happen.
And so he hopes
that one of these boys...
Gorky, will get through.
- So do it.
- That's it?
That's all you have to say?
Edward Saroyan is one of the
greatest directors in the world.
- Twenty years ago.
- Yes...
- Whatever.
- Raffi, you know how long
l've been working on this.
If it can help Gorky's story
get told...
- Go for it.
What?
- Why do you still sleep here?
- It's my home.
- Doesn't she want you there?
- It's uncomfortable.
It's too humid.
- Can we talk about what happened
the other night?
- Sure.
- That's why she wanted to read
my book, so she could
humiliate me?
- So fight back.
- Don't be ridiculous.
She knows next to nothing
about art. And l'm certainly not
going to respond
to her accusations.
- You seem to be doing
a pretty good job.
- What are you talking about?
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"Ararat" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Dec. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/ararat_3059>.
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