UNE HISTOIRE DE FOU (DON'T TELL ME THE BOY WAS MAD)
ROBERT
GUÉDIGUIAN - 2015

 

Une histoire de fou

In French with English subtitles.

Bande Annonce en français
(movie trailer in French)

REVIEWS

All this makes for a meaty two-hour-plus drama, with Guédiguian sketching in the moral dilemmas with clarity and firmness. The central debate is rehearsed again and again: can innocents ever be sacrificed for a cause, however urgent? Andrew Pulver - The Guardian

Guédiguian constructs small stories around the main one with great sincerity and compassion. Certainly making this one of his most successful movies. Geoffrey Crété - CineMan

Director: Robert Guédiguian

Screenplay: Robert Guédiguian & Gilles Taurand Based on the autobiography by José Antonio Antonio Gurriarán

134 min

International Sales: MK2

DRAMA

Not Rated (some violence)

Rendez-vous with Le Professeur Kevin Elstob after the screening.

Cast:
Simon Abkarian: Hovannès Alexandrian
Ariane Ascaride: Anouch Alexandrian
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet: Gilles Teissier
Syrus Shahidi: Aram Alexandrian
Razane Jammal: Anahit
Robinson Stévenin: Soghomon Tehlirian
Serge Avedikian: Armenak
Hrayr Kalemkerian: Haig
Siro Fazlian: Arsinée Sarkissian (Anouch's mom)

A historical drama by Robert Guédiguian taking place in the French Armenian community in the 1980’s and reflecting the same issues we face today regarding how far disenfranchised people are willing to go to fight for their beliefs.

Prologue in Berlin, 1921. Talaat Pasha, a main perpetrator of the Armenian genocide, is killed in the street by Soghomon Tehlirian (Robinson Stévenin), whose entire family had been exterminated. During his trial, his account of the first genocide of the twentieth century leads to him being acquitted by a German popular jury.

Sixty years later, Aram (Syrus Shahidi), a young man of Armenian descent, grows up in Marseille hearing stories of Turkish brutality and genocide against his people, and decides to join the Armenian Liberation Army. His first task is to blow up the Turkish ambassador's car in Paris. Gilles Tessier (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet), a young cyclist just passing by, is seriously injured in the blast... Aram flees to Beirut. Meanwhile, when his mother Anouch (Ariane Ascaride) learns of her son’s involvement in the bombing, she decides to pay a visit to Gilles in the hospital. Anouch’s shame seems no match for Gilles’ anger and bitterness, and at first he refuses to listen to her. Yet the encounter inspires him to dig deeper into Armenian history – and to show up unannounced on the doorstep of Aram's family.

Based on the autobiographical novel by journalist José Antonio Gurriarán, who was himself paralyzed in an Armenian terrorist attack and later defended the Armenian cause, is an absorbing film that dives head-first into themes of collective guilt, historical amnesia, and radicalization.

Thirty years later, the Armenian genocide is still a sore subject. Only last month, when Germany (where the film begins) recognized the Armenian genocide, Turkey recalled its Ambassador in Berlin.

Guédiguian is no stranger to the SFFF. His previous historical drama, Army of Crime, won the SFFF Audience Award in 2010. His social drama The Town is Quiet was part of the line-up of the first SFFF, and The Snows of Kilimandjaro opened our 2012 edition.

Shown with Un obus partout by Zaven Najjar

Sunday, June 26 - 1:50pm
ONE SCREENING ONLY!
Rendez-vous with Le Professeur Kevin Elstob after the Sunday screening.