A Riveting Film About the Forgotten Women of Genocide
ՏԱՏԻԿԻՆ ԴԱՋՈՒԱԾՔՆԵՐԸ
http://www.aztagdaily.com/?p=37227
http://www.armenianw...0901khanoum.jpg
Grandma Khanoum
Also see this;
http://hyeforum.com/...=1
And this;
http://www.genocide-...xhibition_2.php
(BTW, Khanoum means Lady in the Persian خانم One Pers-Eng dictionary says it is of Mongolian origin.. The word is usually used in association with khartoum as in khanoum - khartoum , which also means noble, lady.)
http://www.armenianw...ocide-trailers/
Armenian Weekly - http://www.armenianweekly.com -
Grandmas Tattoos: A Riveting Film About the Forgotten Women of Genocide (Trailers)
Posted By Weekly Staff On September 7, 2011 @ 7:55 am In Books & Art,News | 16 Comments
Director: Suzanne Khardalian
Producer: HB PeA Holmquist Film
Length: 58 min., Sweden
Date of release: September 2011
STOCKHOLM, SwedenGrandma Khanoum was not like everyone else. As a child I remember her as a wicked woman. She despised physical contact. This was a grandma who never hugged, gave no kisses. And she wore those gloves, which hid her hands and the tattoos. They hid her secret. This is how Suzanne Khardalian describes her grandmother.
Grandma Khanoum
Khardalian is the director and producer of riveting new film called Grandmas Tattoos that lifts the veil of thousands of forgotten womensurvivors of the Armenian Genocidewho were forced into prostitution and tattooed to distinguish them from the locals.
As a child I thought these were devilish signs that came from a dark world. They stirred fear in me. What were these tattoos? Who had done them, and why? But the tattoos on grandmas hands and face were a taboo. They never spoke about it, explains Khardalian.
Grandmas Tattoos is a journey into the secrets of the family. Eventually, the secret behind Grandma Khanoums blue marks are revealed.
Grandma was abducted and kept in slavery for many years somewhere in Turkey. She was also forcibly markedtattooedas property, the same way you mark cattle. The discovery of the story has shaken me. I share the shame, the guilt, and anger that infected my grandmas life. Grandma Khanoums fate was not an aberration. On the contrary, tens of thousands of Armenian children and teenagers were raped and abducted, kept in slavery, she explains.
In 1919, just at the end of World War I, the Allied forces reclaimed 90,819 Armenian young girls and children who, during the war years, were forced to become prostitutes to survive, or had given birth to children after forced or arranged marriages or rape. Many of these women were tattooed as a sign that they belonged to abductor. European and American missionaries organized help and saved thousands of refugees who were later scattered all over the world to places like Beirut, Marseille, and Fresno.
The story of Grandmas Tattoos is a personal film about what happened to many Armenian women during the genocide. It is a ghost storywith the ghosts of the tattooed women haunting usand a mystery film, where many taboos are broken. As no one wants to tell the reel and whole story, and in order to bring the pieces of the puzzle together, the director makes us move between different times and space, from todays Sweden to Khardalians childhood in Beirut.
In the film we meet Grandma Khantoums sister, 98-year-old Lucia, who lives in Hollywood. Lucia, too, has those odd tattoos. She is willing to tell us only a part of the story. We also meet with Aunt Marie, Grandmas only still-living child in Beirut. But Aunt Marie doesnt know the whole story either. Grandma has never told it to her. It was forbidden to talk about the unspeakable. Aunt Marie has the same unpleasant memories as the rest of the family.
Its finally Khardalians mother who tells the story about Grandma Khanoum, and about the Kurdish man who was supposed to her grandma escape the killings but instead decided to abduct her and keep her as his concubine. Grandma was only a child then. She had just turned 12 The words Mummy, mummy help me is the sentence that haunts Suzanne and her family.
About the Director
Suzanne Khardalian is an independent filmmaker and writer. She studied journalism in Beirut and Paris and worked as a journalist in Paris until 1985, when she started to work on films. She also holds a masters degree in international law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and contributes articles to different journals. She has directed more than 20 films that have been shown both in Europe and the U.S. They include Back to Ararat (1988), Unsafe Ground (1993), The Lion from Gaza (1996), Her Armenian Prince (1997), From Opium to Chrysanthemums (2000), Where Lies My Victory (2002), I Hate Dogs (2005), Bullshit (2006), and Young Freud in Gaza (2009).
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Edited by Arpa, 11 November 2011 - 10:14 AM.