'The
Promise' brings tragedy of 1915 Armenian massacre to big
screen
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[April 14, 2017]
By Ben Gruber
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
Celebrities of Armenian descent including Cher and the
Kardashians lent their support this week to "The
Promise," a period drama centered around the massacre of
Christian Armenians during World War One in what is now
Turkey. "The Promise," out in U.S. theaters on April 21,
stars Oscar Isaac as an Armenian medical student and
Christian Bale as an American foreign correspondent,
both of whom fall in love with the same woman.
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Their love triangle unfolds as the Ottoman Empire's entry
into the war is followed by the 1915 massacre of Christian
Armenians.
"So many people, when confronted with a period film, they tend
to ask that question 'why is this still relevant?'" Bale told
Reuters at Wednesday's red carpet premiere in Los Angeles.
"You only have to look at the news to see sadly how relevant
this story still is," he added.
Terry George, who directed 2004 Oscar-nominated historical drama
"Hotel Rwanda," said shooting "The Promise" coincided with news
of Yazidi refugees besieged by Islamic militants in northern
Iraq and the mass exodus of Syrians attempting to flee the
war-torn country for Europe.
"As we were shooting, we were watching the same events in the
same location - people under siege in the mountains and drowning
in the Mediterranean," George said.
The nature and scale of the massacre of Christian Armenians
remains a contentious issue.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting
beginning in 1915, but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed
and that this constituted an act of genocide, a term used by
many Western historians and foreign parliaments.
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Singer Cher, whose father was Armenian-American, joined reality TV
stars Kim and Kourtney Kardashian at the premiere.
"There is something about people when they don't see other people as
human beings, then they objectify and then they can do anything to
them," Cher said about the massacre.
"Westworld" actress Angela Sarafyan, who plays Isaac's wife in the
film and is of Armenian descent, described the role as very
personal.
"My great-great-grandparents fled to Syria, Aleppo to survive and to
start a family and today, people from Syria, Aleppo leave to other
places so they can live," she said.
"One hundred years have gone by and that is still happening," she
added.
(Reporting by Ben Gruber for Reuters TV; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy
and Matthew Lewis)
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