DIRECTED BY

Inna Sahakyan

STARRING

Arshaluys Mardiganian, Anzhelika Hakobyan, Arpi Petrossian, Shushan Abrahamyan, Ervin Amiryan, Sara Anjargolian, Varand Bedrossian, Tamara Chalkhifalaqyan and Marianna Jilavdaryan

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SYNOPSIS

A genocide survivor becomes a silent movie star: Aurora Mardiganian’s odyssey is close to unreal. After losing her family, escaping slavery, and enduring Hollywood greed, she journeys far to tell the world of the Armenian Genocide.

Aurora’s Sunrise is an adult animated documentary, written and directed by Inna Sahakyan and has been selected as Armenia’s entry for the Best International Feature category for the upcoming 95th Academy Awards. The animated documentary focuses on the true story of Arshaluys Mardiganian, who at fourteen-years-old witnessed horror and tragedy of the Armenia Genocide, and how her extraordinary courage led her escape to New York, where she became a media sensation-turned film star, becoming the face of the largest charity campaign in American History.

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While I am familiar with some the details about the Armenian Genocide just out of self-interest in look to learn the history about the atrocity, I never heard of Arshaluys/Aurora Mardiganian’s story before and, once you follow her journey through interview excerpts (where she’s featured describing her experiences), being woven in with the CG animation (to further develop her experiences to the viewer), you get a particular reason as to why, especially once she makes it to the United States. Particularly when it comes to her starring as the protagonist in the 1919 American silent film, ‘Auction of Souls’, which only remains to this day in incomplete form. Why have a film, which featured someone who was a media sensation at the time and the face of the largest charity campaign in American History, end up being lost throughout the years? You’ll have to see the film to learn why. The direction from Inna Sahakyan is very well done here in how she incorporates the interview footage, stock film footage and animation together, complimented by the editing work from Ruben Ghazaryan.

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I really liked how the artwork for the animation was done with this watercolour quality that really made it stand out, especially when it came to particular sequences such as Aurora remembering that one day that the family were taking part in their play, ‘The Three Goats’, but from a traumatic point-of-view, was very effective. There are other instances of the animation that work really well, such as when Aurora’s father is talking at the table outside the house, and it’s a long shot that slowly zooms in on the father as he begins to sing. The film has been promoted as adult animation documentary for a reason, as the images depicted from Arshaluys/Aurora’s personal experiences are not for the faint of heart, particularly when she mentions in the interview that there was a crucifixion scene in ‘Auction of Souls’ as the truth would’ve been too unbearable for American audiences to witness, and as she describes the truth of what had happened, we get a quick animated glimpse of it and it is haunting, particularly with Christine Aufderhaar’s score.

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VERDICT

Beautifully animated with a haunting tale of human history, Aurora’s Sunrise is arguably one of the most impactful films I’ve seen this year. An important story to tell about finding courage over adversity.

★★★★

AURORA’S SUNRISE WILL BE SCREENING AT RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2023 ON THURSDAY 2ND NOVEMBER. TO BOOK A TICKET CLICK HERE.