More than a century after the Armenian Genocide, the story is now a major motion picture. The Promise is scheduled for release April 21 in the United States, directed by Terry George and starring Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon and Christian Bale.
Funded by the late Armenian businessman and philanthropist Kirk Kerkorian, all proceeds of the film will be donated to nonprofit organizations.
The film’s release is timed to coincide with the date Armenians mark as the beginning of the Genocide, April 24, 1915, when hundreds of Armenian intellectuals were rounded up and later executed.
The Ottoman Empire, ruled by Muslim Turks, conquered Christian Armenia in the 16th century. Coexisting for more than three centuries, toward the end of the 19th century came a series of massacres of Armenians in 1895-1896 and again in 1909.
In 1914 the government adopted a policy to eliminate its Christian Armenian minority. From 1914 to 1923 some 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed. According to The New York Times, there were 2.1 million Armenians in the empire in 1914 and only 387,800 by 1922.
Twenty-six countries recognize the Armenian Genocide, but Turkey refuses to do so. In 2011, when France passed a bill making it illegal to deny that the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide, Ankara responded by cancelling all economic, political and military meetings with the country.
Earlier this month, Turkey recalled its ambassador to the Vatican after Pope Francis described the Armenian mass killing as genocide.
Survival Pictures hopes the production and release of the first major Hollywood film on the Armenian Genocide will result in universal acknowledgement of its existence. The company has also developed a social impact campaign for the film to raise awareness of the global public about the genocides and mass atrocities of the 20th and 21st centuries, and encourage discussion about the legal definition of genocide and about historical denialism.
