August 28, 2017 Vigen Avetisyan World
In March 2016, the Egyptian film “Who Killed the Armenians?” dedicated to the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire was highly awarded at the American filmfestival “Socially Relevant Films” held in New York.
“Who Killed the Armenians?” is the first documentary film about the tragedy of the Armenian people in the Arabic language. The authors of the film are Egyptian director Mohamed Hanafy and journalist and anchorperson Myriam Zaki.
Filming took place in Armenia, Egypt, and Lebanon. The film also used documentary materials on the atrocities of the Ottoman rulers against the Armenian population of the empire.
The film was demonstrated on March 19, 2016 and gathered an unprecedented number of viewers. The film received awards in nominations “SR Film Festival’s Audience Award” and “The Vanya Exerjian: Empowering Women and Girls Award”.
Interested in the history of Armenia, Hanafy and Zaki decided to tell the world about the tragic events of 1915. Speaking of what prompted them to take up the filming, Myriam Zaki said in one of her interviews, “Studying the first genocide of the 20th century, I received an opportunity to reassess the role of the Ottoman Empire in the eyes of Arab people and draw parallels between the past and present times with a new perception.
So, understanding the Armenian Genocide sheds new light on the Arab Spring. It’s time for people and the Arab world to sober up. I hope that new measures will be taken to rectify the path that has been passed.
The original goal was to study the problem and then start filming it, presenting the Arab viewer with historical and documentary facts about the terrible reality.
As for me and Mohamed, the driving force was the human factor, which forced us to take such a step. The Armenian Genocide, which has been kept covered for so long, is unacceptable for us.”
The film was mainly shot in Armenia. It includes documentary cadres of the testimony of Armenians who survived the genocide. For the first time, the film was presented to the public in November 2015. The film premiered in Cairo.
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