Ararat

A director (Aznavour) shoots a historical drama (inspired by Arshile Gorky's portrait of himself with his mother) about Turkey's massacre of the Armenians; meanwhile, Armenians in Canadian exile, some involved with the shoot, some merely with one another, try to sort out their own attitudes to their cultural and personal histories. Egoyan's film, clearly close to his heart, is a summation of the themes that have preoccupied him from the start of his career. Regrettably, while one may applaud his desire to set the record straight and recognise his narrative ingenuity, the atypically heavy-handed execution suggests he may have been rather too close to the material. The dramatic contrivance extends to customs officer Plummer acting as a kind of father confessor.