“The Promise”: A Story about the Armenian Genocide Hit America’s Movie Screens
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
NEW YORK– Two films, with opposing viewpoints on the issue of the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, have been released in the United States within six weeks of one another, bringing the controversial issue to the forefront, Hollywood style.
“The Promise,” a film directed by Terry George (“Hotel Rwanda”) and starring Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale, opened this past weekend. The film, which had a $100 million budget, presents the 1915 Armenian genocide through the lens of a romantic love triangle. The late financier, Kirk Kerkorian, an Armenian whose family escaped to the United States, provided the money. He passed away before the movie went into production.
“He felt if we don’t shine a light, we’re doomed,” Eric Esrailian, a lead producer with Survival Pictures, Kerkorian’s production company, told the New York Times.
Six weeks earlier, “The Ottoman Lieutenant,” a film that also involves a love triangle during the same period, opened. Armenian circles were quick to criticize it for white-washing the genocide. The American Hellenic Council has called for a boycott of the movie.
“It’s a sort of mirror image of our film, but with a totally denialist perspective,” George told the New York Times.
People involved with “The Promise” argue that it isn’t a coincidence that the two films opened almost simultaneously by Hollywood standards.
Mike Medavoy, one of the producers of “The Promise” told the Hollywood Reporter, a widely respected journal in the entertainment industry, that “The Ottoman Lieutenant” was financed by none other than Recep Erdogan’s son, Bilal, 35.
“What’s interesting to me,” Medavoy told The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s New York premiere last week, “is that they felt they needed to make this counter-political argument.”
Meanwhile, “The Promise,” opened this weekend with an ambitious television advertising campaign. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in Septembe, to so-so reviews and nearly 55,000 one-star votes on the Internet Movie Database. The makers of the movie believe that that number is suspicious since only a few thousand people actually saw the movie at the festival.
Which message gets across to America’s movie audiences ultimately depends on the fight for the box office. “The Ottoman Lieutenant,” which stars Josh Hartnett and Michiel Huisman, has only earned $261,000 after six weeks in theaters, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. How “The Promise” will do, of course, is still uncertain. Box office returns for its opening weekend will be released on Monday.
The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline Hollywood and The New York Times