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Aurora’s Sunrise
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Aurora’s Sunrise
IDFA 2022

Aurora’s Sunrise

Արշալույսի Լուսաբացը
Inna Sahakyan
Armenia, Germany, Lithuania
2022
97 min
Dutch Premiere
Festival history

1919 saw the premiere in New York of Auction of Souls, a silent film about a teenage girl who survived the Armenian genocide and fled to the US. The main role was played by the survivor herself, Aurora Mardiganian. The film was a box office hit, and Mardiganian became world-famous.

The massacres in Armenia continued, however, and Mardiganian was engulfed by the waves of relived trauma whipped up by the callous Hollywood publicity machine. Nonetheless, she chose to become the face of a humanitarian campaign, in the hope of saving her people. Now, more than a century later, Inna Sahakyan’s historical documentary reconstructs the life story of this hero, who died in 1994.

Mardiganian’s memoir Ravished Armenia lies at the heart of this chronological animated film. The animated sections are interspersed with rare scenes from the original Hollywood film, most of which has been lost, as well as archive footage of an elderly Mardiganian recalling her remarkable, hellish odyssey. She, like the film’s director Sahakyan, wanted to ensure that the Armenian genocide will never be forgotten.

Credits
Director
Co-production
    Christian Beetz,
    Justė Michailinaitė,
    Kestutis Drazdauskas for ARTBOX,
    Eric Esrailian ,
    Kerstin Meyer-Beetz
Cinematography
    Vardan Brutyan
    Vardan Brutyan
Animation
    Tigran Arakelyan,
    Grediminas Skyrius,
    Rimas Valeikis,
    Šarūnas Vyštartas
    Tigran Arakelyan,
    Grediminas Skyrius,
    Rimas Valeikis,
    Šarūnas Vyštartas
Editing
    Ruben Ghazaryan
    Ruben Ghazaryan
Sound Design
    Tigran Kuzikyan
    Tigran Kuzikyan
Music
    Christine Aufderhaar
    Christine Aufderhaar
Narrator
    Anzhelika Hakobyan
    Anzhelika Hakobyan
Involved TV Channel
    ARTE,
    ZDF,
    Public Television Company of Armenia,
    Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT)
    ARTE,
    ZDF,
    Public Television Company of Armenia,
    Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT)
World Sales
    CAT&Docs
    CAT&Docs
Distribution for the Netherlands
    Periscoop Film
    Periscoop Film
Screening copy
    Bars Media Documentary Film Studio
    Bars Media Documentary Film Studio

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