The
Armenian Genocide did not suddenly happen. The Ottoman Empire orchestrated the
mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the Hamidian Massacres of
1894-1896. Carried out without the obscuring benefit of the fog of war, it was
essentially an early rehearsal for the genocide conducted by the Young Turks government
in 1915. For years, the Turkish government pressured Hollywood to conform to
their redacted view of history, but thanks to the financial support of Kirk
Kerkorian, Terry George’s The Promise was
produced and recently released nationwide. Joe Berlinger documents the behind-the-scenes
making of The Promise as well as the
ugly business of genocide denial in Intent
to Destroy, which screens
during the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.
You
will hear Spanish on the set, because Spain was one of the locations selected
as a good architectural and topographical double for Turkey, which was
automatically considered off limits for shooting, for obvious reasons. George
was a logical choice to helm The Promise,
because he had previously addressed genocide in the Oscar-nominated Hotel Rwanda. He finally succeeded where
others caved-in. Pointedly, Berlinger gives viewers a detailed blow-by-blow of
the campaign launched against MGM’s canceled adaptation of Franz Werfel’s Fort Days of Musa Dagh, one of the bestselling
novels in translation of the 1930s.
Intent has been uncharitably
likened to a making-of DVD extra for The Promise,
but that is not entirely fair. Berlinger does indeed chronicle the production
of the film, starting with an early public table read, featuring Eric Bogosian
and Anna George. However, the doc also incorporates a great deal of historical
and cultural context. Indeed, context is exactly what Turkish nationalists and
other genocide deniers do not want viewers to have.
Perhaps
most enlightening are the sequences that expose the assassination of Hrant
Dink, a prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist who directly addressed the
Genocide, as well as the lackadaisical prosecution of his murderer. In rather
eye-opening segments, Berlinger also lets prominent Genocide Obfuscators (since
the object to the term “denier”) a chance to make their case. Arguably, M.
Hakan Yavuz takes the cake for most risible argument, suggesting it was Turkish
Muslims who suffered most from WWI and its aftermath, because they were so
demoralized by the loss of the empire.
Although
neither is a masterpiece, The Promise is
a pretty good film and Intent to Destroy is
a pretty good documentary. While Terry George was the perfect director to helm Promise, Berlinger’s aversion to
transparency and his legal battle to keep outtakes from Crude out of the public eye will make him an easy target for
deniers looking to discredit Intent.
That is a shame, because there could be a narrow window of opportunity for the
U.S. government to finally officially recognize the Armenian Genocide after
decades of deferring Ankara for geopolitical reasons. Given Erdogan’s continued
tilt towards Iran and his recent blatant power grab, would it really be so bad
if American reversed course? It would certainly cost him serious face.