Ararat Page #6

and how and why we got here.

- Excuse me, you can't cross set.

We're rolling.

We have an intruder on set.

- Okay.

We'II handle it from here.

- Oh, clamp, clamp.

- What is she doing?

- Oh, look at this.

- It took us hours

to set this up.

- I need to talk to you.

- Better be paying me

for overtime.

- Please, we're shooting a scene.

- All right, no. We're cutting.

- What is this? Godammit!

We're surrounded by Turks.

We've run out of supplies.

Most of us will die.

The crowd needs a miracle.

This child is bleeding to death.

If I can save his life, it may

give us the spirit to continue.

This is his brother.

His pregnant sister...

was raped in front of his eyes,

before her stomach was slashed

open to stab her unborn child.

His father's eyes

were gouged out of his head

and stuffed into his mouth.

And his mother's breasts

were ripped off.

She was left to bleed to death.

Who the f*** are you?

'-In a field of cinders,

where Armenian life was dying,

a German woman,

trying not to cry,

told me the horrors

she'd witnessed.

I must tell you what I saw

so people will understand

the crimes that men do to men.'

It was Sunday morning,

the first useless Sunday

dawning on the corpses.

I saw a dark crowd in the courtyard

lashing a group of young women.

And animal of a man shouted,

'You must dance,

dance when the drum beats.

With fury, the whips cracked

on the flesh of the women.

Hand in hand, the brides

began their circle dance.

Dance, they raved.

Dance till you die.'

'...dance with bare breasts, without shame...'

[cracking whips and shouting]

Then,

someone brought a jug of kerosene.

'The brides were anointed.

'Dance,' they thundered.

There is a fragrance sweeter

than any perfume.

With a torch,

they set the brides on fire.

And the charred bodies

rolled to their deaths.

The German woman

looked at me and said:

'How shall I dig out

these eyes of mine?'

Tell me. How?'

[Screaming]

This is it, Mom.

The Madonna and child,

on the island of Aghtamar,

where it all began.

I was there

when they shot that scene.

It was the same day

she attacked the painting.

The painting based on this.

I left for Turkey a week later.

- Does she know

you went to the island?

- Who?

- Your mother.

- No. No, she doesn't.

- Have you spoken to her?

- No.

- People lose touch.

- There's something

l've been meaning to ask you.

- Yeah?

- Aren't there dogs

used forthis sort of thing?

- What sort of thing?

- Well, if you think

there are drugs in these cans...

- Yeah, we have dogs forthat.

- So, uh...

why don't you use one?

- What?

- A dog.

- A dog would take away

what I like most about this job.

- What's that?

- The opportunity to...

better understand

how the mind works.

A dog would come in and bark.

And that bark would mean

only one thing:

That there were drugs

in these cans.

Ruff! You're lying.

I caught you. You're a liar.

That's what a dog does.

- Right.

- L'm not saying that

what a dog does isn't important.

But there are...

other issues involved.

Aren't there?

Things a dog doesn't have

the capacity to consider.

A dog...

wouldn't know

he's being retired,

that this is his last day,

his final interrogation.

Is someone picking you up?

- No.

- Good.

Might be worried.

Even l'm worried.

- About what?

- About you.

What are we gonna do?

There's no one I can contact.

There's no way of confirming...

that a single word that

you've told me tonight is true.

- Everything l've told you

is exactly what happened.

- My mother never told me about

what happened during the march.

Only one story.

They had a pomegranate tree

in the garden.

And when they came

to take the family away,

she grabbed one of the fruit.

She knew the journey

would be long.

Every day, she would take out

one seed and eat it.

She would bite it bit by bit,

pretending that one seed

was a whole meal.

Try it.

Now, when I eat

a pomegranate seed,

it gives me two things:

Luck

and a powerto imagine.

[Beeping]

- Hello?

- Mom. Hi.

- Raffi?

Raffi, where are you?

- Ljust got back to Toronto.

They've stopped me here

at Customs,

with all the footage

I got forthe film.

They're wondering

what's inside the cans.

- What cans?

What are you talking about?

- The stuff I had to shoot

around Van.

They've stopped me here

at Customs and, uh...

they want to open the cans,

but they can't. Because...

Raffi, do you want me to lie?

- Yes.

I miss you too.

I have so much to tell you, Mom.

I went to Aghtamar.

- Aghtamar?

- I found the mother and child

on the church.

I had some days free,

so I went to Aghtamar.

Here, l'm gonna hand

you overto the inspector.

I think he wants to know more

about the film this is for.

- Hello. Are you Raffi's mother?

- Yes, I am.

- Are you a professor

at the university?

- Yes, that's right.

- And you're involved

in this film?

- Yes, I was hired

as a historical consultant.

A book I wrote

was used as a reference.

- What was the book about?

- It was about the life

of Arshile Gorky.

- Is he the main character

in the film?

- No.

- What was your son shooting

in Turkey?

- He had to go to the place

where Arshile Gorky was born.

- Why?

- To shoot some material.

- And how is this material

to be used?

- To help show what happened.

- How did he die?

- Who?

- Gorky.

- Why are you asking me

these questions?

- Did he kill himself?

[Cheering and clapping]

- Ani, we have to go.

- Where are you?

- Where am I?

- Listen, she's at the premiere

of the film,

and she'II have to get back

to you, okay?

- Hello? May I speak

to my son, please?

- So the film

is completely finished.

- Please, let me speak to my son.

Raffi?

- Yeah.

Tell me what to do.

- Sure.

L'II meet you at home.

- Marty, how are you responding

to the people

who say this is all

an exaggeration?

- It's, you know...

it's documented.

And really, every word I say

is directly quoted

from Ussher's own journal.

- Marty!

- That's where I met them,

right on the train.

- To Ararat.

- Yeah. They were shooting

a commercial.

- A commercial?

- I became friends with the

cameraman and I told him

that I wanted to get an image

with this. This.

I wanted to get a shot of Ararat

in the picture.

- What for?

- Forthe film. I thought

it was something we could use.

- How? The film is finished.

- I wasn't thinking about that.

He had to bribe a soldier

to take us up.

That's a military road, okay?

You can't just go up there.

That's his voice. You can

actually hear it on the...

We went up about halfway and

then... We shot this footage

from there. On film.

On this film.

- Why didn't you tell me

this before?

- I had to tell you

the other story.

- Why?

- Because it meant

something to me.

- So this voice on the tape,

this crew person,

gave you the film,

let you use his camera,

bribed a soldier...

and then drove you up

Mount Ararat.

- Yes.

- Did he ask you to do him

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