THE LARK FARM
Italy, 2007, 125 minutes, Colour.
Paz Vega, Angela Molina, Tchecky Karyo, Moritz Bleibtrau.
Directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.
For decades the Taviani brothers have made films of the land, the Italian land, its history, its revolutions (Allonsanfan), World War II (The Night of San Lorenzo), the people who have made Italy, even its migrants who went to the US and worked on Griffith’s Intolerance sets (Good Morning, Babylon). Their cinema style has been colourful, bold, often larger than life – at times, operatic in an emotional Italian way.
They bring this style now, especially its operatic emotions, to an entirely different world from Italy: Armenia. This is a disturbing film about the 1915 Armenian genocide, the massacre of over a million and a half Armenians by the Turks, a national trauma that has not been healed and which is officially denied by the Turkish government (and passed over by others).
A prologue with a dying grandfather creates an idyllic family which is suddenly shattered by a nightmare of death and a glimpse of a wall spattered with blood.
The Tavianis create life in a town where the officials are from the almost defunct Ottoman Empire, yet the two peoples, Turks and Armenians, live side by side. This is the period of World War I and the Turkish alliance with Germany. We are then introduced to the family with a great attention to domestic detail. They are well-to-do, live a genteel way of life, and get on well with the local commandant. Into this context, the plans for the extermination of the Armenians are explained by ruthless visitors from the Turkish government and, as in other massacres, the reasoning that ‘orders are orders’ takes over.
Warned about the impending attack, the family and people from the town take refuge in the country at The Lark Farm. Suddenly, and without warning to the audience as well as to the characters, the killing is upon us. The Tavianis do not spare the audience. The action is appalling but the Tavianis have the skills to blend some extraordinary graphic moments with suggestion, mood and implications.
With the male population dead, the troops march the women and children out into the desert where they are to be exterminated. The screenplay brings some tension into this merciless trek by having a Greek servant combine with a local beggar who repents the role he had in betraying the family, raising money and finding the means for the survivors to escape by night. It almost works but graphic tragedy occurs again.
The aftermath offers some court sequences of what were momentary show trials (and which were peremptorily terminated) and tribunals of justice have not taken up the wrongs of what occurred almost a hundred years ago.
Based on a novel by Italian Armenian, the film has an international cast of well-known actors: from France, Tcheky Karyo as the father and Andre Dussollier as the commandant; from Spain, Paz Vega as the central sister and Angela Molina as the servant; from Canada, Arsinee K, as the mother; from Germany Moritz Bleibtreu as a sympathetic solider, plus a number of Armenian performers acting out the destruction of their ancestors.
1.A portrait of Armenia? Its impact? History, the genocide, truth, politics? Impact now, consequences of the genocide?
2.The impact for Armenian audiences, wider audiences? Action?
3.The Tavianis and their Italian background, the films: history, people, social concerns? Their attention to detail, creating a world? Operatic and emotional style?
4.The locations: 1915, costumes and décor, way of life, homes, the farm, the desert, the city of Aleppo? Musical score?
5.Audience knowledge of the genocide, the information given in the film, the effect on minds, hearts?
6.The treatment: the Armenians, their history, way of life? The Ottoman empire, its centuries of rule, attitudes, racist attitudes towards the Armenians, suppression? The plan, its detail, the massacre of the males, the looting of the properties, the trek of the women and children into the desert for death? Eradicating the race?
7.The prologue, the young boy, his dying grandfather, the bond, the death, the dream, the wall spattered with blood?
8.The aftermath of the death, the family gathering, the boys, the girls being informed? The husband and wife, the sister, Ismene? The funeral, people’s response? The friends? The sister and her love for the Turkish soldier?
9.The commander and his wife, friends with the family, the issue of orders despite personal beliefs? The commander’s wife, overhearing the information about the massacre, not wanting to go to the party, forced to go, her drinking, her fainting, her talking about the mirror, coveting the goods? Indications of what was to come?
10.The Turks, their plan, the detail, the massacre of the men, the orders? The fierce captain and his violence and racism? His men? The soldier in love with the sister, his friends helping, the rendezvous, the beggar informing, the commandant and giving the young man options, the young man taking the commission?
11.The sister and her love, Ismene and her warnings, telling her the truth, her waiting, sad?
12.The party and its preparation, the dinner, the doctor arriving and giving the information about the attack? The decision to go to the Lark farm? The people gathering, going to the countryside? The women staying, the soldiers arriving – and the hot bowl of soup being left, indicating the flight of the men?
13.The beggar, his character, friends with the family, spying on the soldier, telling the commander, as a guest with the family? His motivations? Giving the information about the Lark farm? The troops, the confrontation? The arrival, the separation of the boys from the girls, hiding the boy as a girl – and the beggar telling the sister that he should wear earrings? His being saved?
14.The confrontation of the soldiers, the interrogations, the sudden decapitation of the father, his head falling in the lap of his wife? Audience response? Dismay, disgust? The scenes of the slaughter, the corpses of the men and the boys? The doctor, his help for the Turks, the castration? The vicious nature of the soldiers? The commandant arriving, seeing the doctor, his past indebtedness to him, the mercy shooting?
15.Audience sympathies for the Armenians, for the father of the family, the good man, the doctor? The wife? The children being killed?
16.The rounding up of the woman and the girls, the plan, the details of the trek through the desert? Their being dispossessed, only a few goods, the harshness of the treatment? The mother sending Ismene to Aleppo? The beggar going to Aleppo?
17.The stories of the deaths on the road, the old aunt, the flashbacks to her party, her defiance and her death? The wife, emaciated, with the children, their hunger? Her grief? The sister and her gaunt appearance?
18.The soldiers, their brutal behaviour? The brutal captain? The rapes? Sex and food? The sympathetic soldier? His interest in the sister? Her giving herself to him, the relationship? The food for the family? The woman who escaped, her being burnt, decapitated?
19.Ismene and the beggar in Aleppo, going to the brotherhoods, their discussions, the need for money? Going to the Spanish diplomat? The wealthy dance? His help?
20.The brother in Italy, his family, the previous visits and the Lark farm? His grief, selling his goods, his wife supporting him? Getting the money, the lawyer? Hiding the money in the book? The Spanish connection?
21.The sister, her going to farewell the soldier, the discussion about staying with him? Her fearing the torture but not death? The details of the escape, the little girl wanting the apple, the sister going back, her being caught, the others being able to escape, the soldier, her nodding to him, the decapitation?
22.The aftermath with the trials, the soldier and his telling the truth, the captain and his men and their defiance? The racist tone? The sudden calling off of the trials?
23.A portrait of a genocide? Hitler’s statement that everybody had forgotten the genocide of the Armenians? The consequences, Armenia and the Soviet occupation, the republic? The need for acknowledging the genocide?
