‘1915’ Earns Special Jury Prize at the Lake Van International Film Festival

1915 Movie earns Special Jury Prize

VAN””The closing night film at the Lake Van International Film Festival, the psychological thriller 1915 received a resounding ovation from the Kurdish and Turkish audience in attendance””and earned the Special Jury Prize at a ceremony in downtown Van on December 11, 2015. The film, co-directed by Garin Hovannisian and Alec Mouhibian, had been at the center of much controversy in the lead-up to the screening, as local anti-Armenian groups condemned the festival and threatened the festival organizer for inviting such a film to what is considered Eastern Turkey.

Executive produced by Armenia’s first foreign minister, Raffi Hovannisian, starring Simon Abkarian and Angela Sarafyan, and featuring an original score by Serj Tankian, the film is a tribute to the legacy of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. (To download the film, or for more information, please visit www.1915themovie.com.)

Representing the film in Van, Garin Hovannisian took on Turkey’s century of denial and spoke out forcefully about the Armenian Genocide””at the same time recognizing the courage of those intellectuals and organizers who have initiated such a discussion 100 years later. In an interview with Van TV at the Holy Cross Church on Akhtamar Island, Hovannisian said: “This is the spiritual and symbolic heart of the Armenian kingdom. We do not feel like strangers in this land. We feel that we have come home.”