99 - all you should know about the Genocide April, 2014 | Page 83
The film “Barking
Island” talks indirectly
about the Armenian
Genocide. It presents
historical facts about
how the dogs in
Constantinople were
eliminated in 1910.
The government of
the Young Turks was
responsible. So the
film was not about the
Armenian Genocide,
but the metaphor was
well chosen, because
the same government
was behind the
Genocide. I had said
this very thing in
Turkey, but the local
media twisted my
words and wrote that
my film has nothing to
do with the Genocide.
French-Armenian movie director,
actor, screenwriter and producer.
Serge Avedikian’s family repatriated to
Armenia from France in 1947, influenced
by Soviet propaganda, and then
returned to France in 1970. Avedikian’s
animated film “Barking Island” is set
in Constantinople in 2010. The city
is presented as the European capital
of culture, but who could recall that
thousands of dogs were slaughtered in
1910 in the name of Westernization and
progress? From the European center of
the city to its distant edges, the variety
in opinions paints a picture of society
presenting both its progressive side and
its internal contradictions. “Barking
Island” was awarded the Palme d’Or
among short films at the Cannes Film
Festival in 2010.