| Aurora's Sunrise | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Inna Sahakyan |
| Written by | Peter Liakhov Kerstin Meyer-Beetz Inna Sahakyan |
| Produced by | Arevik Avanesyan Christian Beetz Kestutis Drazdauskas Eric Esrailian Angela Frangyan Nvard Ghazaryan Vardan Hovhannisyan Kathrin Isberner Sona Margaryan Juste Michailinaite Yelizaveta Petrosyan Khane Poghosyan Inna Sahakyan Astghik Sayadyan Anna Ter-Gabrielyan Anna Zakaryan |
| Cinematography | Vardan Brutyan |
| Edited by | Ruben Ghazaryan |
| Music by | Christine Aufderhaar |
Production companies | Bars Media Broom Films Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion |
Release date |
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Running time | 96 minutes |
| Countries | Armenia Germany Lithuania |
| Languages | Armenian English Turkish Kurdish German |
Aurora's Sunrise (Armenian:Արշալույսի լուսաբացը) is a 2022adultanimated documentary film directed by Inna Sahakyan. It is based on the life ofAurora Mardiganian, anArmenian Genocide survivor who after her escape became an actress in the United States. The film includes short scenes of the filmAuction of Souls, a silent film from 1919 on the Armenian Genocide, in which Aurora Mardiganian had the leading role.[1]
The film is primarily animated, intercut with the remaining footage ofAuction of Souls, an interview with Mardiganian, and other historical footage.[2]
Arshaluys Mardiganian is born into a wealthy Armenian family inEastern Anatolia in theOttoman Empire. Their neighbor, aKurdish shepherd, warns them of Armenians rounded up and killed by the Ottomans, but her father refuses to leave, but then he and her brother are drafted to fight inWorld War I. Soon after, her family, along with thousands of other Armenians, are forced onto adeath march across theSyrian desert, in which her mother and siblings all perish. Mardiganian is sold intosexual slavery, but she flees by diving into a river. She witnesses the family of her two-year-old cousin killed, and she escapes with the baby and they are taken in by a kind Kurdish family. She leaves the baby with the family, believing that he will be safer with them. She finds shelter at a monastery, which is then attacked, and she is captured and sold into a Turkishharem. She flees back home to Armenia and finds her neighbor, the shepherd, who informs her that her uncle is alive, but very ill withmalaria, and is hiding in a village in the mountains. Once he recovers, he joins the resistance and leaves Mardiganian in Russian-controlledErzurum.
With the help of American missionaries, she leaves Armenia forTbilisi, thenSt. Petersburg, and then toNew York in the United States. Armenian military leaderAndranik Ozanian gives her the mission of informing the United States of what is happening to her people; she also hopes to find her brother who lives in the States. She is taken in by journalist Henry Leyford Gates and his novelist wife Eleanor Brown Gates, whom becomes her legal guardian. She writes and publishes anautobiography, entitledRavished Armenia, under theAnglicized name of "Aurora." The book gains the attention of a director who wants to turn it into a film. The film,Auction of Souls, is made and used to raise funds forAmerican Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. She tours the country promoting the film, but repeatedly reliving the trauma of the genocide takes a toll on her well-being, and despite her efforts, she never finds her brother. At a screening inBuffalo, she collapses from exhaustion.
Gates sends her to live at aconvent, until she receives a letter from her uncle revealing that her sister Arusyak was found alive inAleppo, and has arranged to come to the United States. She finds new hope upon learning this, along with seeing the amount of Armenian orphans rescued by the Far East Relief. A ship arrives at the harbor, where Mardiganian awaits her sister.
Text details that Mardiganian later became a wife and mother, and lived in obscurity until her death in 1994. Shortly after, the remaining footage of the once fully lostAuction of Souls was discovered. TheAurora Prize for Awakening Humanity is named in honor of her. Since then, the United States hasacknowledged the Armenian genocide while the government ofTurkey continues todeny it. The film ends with a dedication to all genocide survivors, and a message to "never forget."
Inna Sahakyan began its development in 2014 but she had no prior experience in making an animated film.[1] Since 2015 theZoryan Institute supported the realization of the film by signing an agreement with Bars Media.[3] The Zoryan Institute provided interviews with Aurora Mardiganian, recorded before Mardiganian's death.[4] The decision to make an animated documentary from her story, was motivated because animation enabled much more freedom in expression techniques.[1] Armenian colors and symbols were included in the film[1] and thepaper cutoutCG animation technique was used, where only a few frames per second are animated.[5] The film began to be produced in 2019, but the process was disrupted by theCOVID-19 pandemic and then also theconflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020.[1] At the time of the conflict the production was helped strongly by Lithuanians and the Germans.[6] The film is a co-production of Bars Media from Armenia, Broom Films from Lithuania and the Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion from Germany.[7]
The film premiered in June 2022 when it was shown at theAnnecy International Animation Festival.[8] It premiered inYerevan, the capital of Armenia in November.[6] It is Armenia'sentry to the Academy Awards for International Feature Film in 2023, becoming the second animated documentary film to be nominated for that section afterFlee from Denmark in 2022.[6][5][9] UnlikeFlee, it was not selected as a nominee for theAcademy Award for Best International Feature Film.
On October 23, 2023, the film will be broadcast on the American channelPBS through itsPOV television series.[10]
Critical Response
Since premiering in June 2022 the film has had mostly positive reviews from critics, currently holding a high score on film and television review-aggregation websitesRotten Tomatoes andLetterboxd.[18][19]Brian Tallerico, managing editor ofRogerEbert.com, awardedAurora's Sunrise three and a half out of four stars, describing the film as 'a stunning hybrid that melds animation, interview footage with its subject, and a 1919 silent film once thought lost to history that’s about her life' and 'a reminder that film doesn't just record history, it can transport us through it.'[20] The film madeThe New York Times "Critic's Pick" list prior to the start of its limited theatrical run in North America, with critic Teo Bugbee calling Aurora's Sunrise a 'standout documentary.'[21]
