ARARAT: The Shooting Script

Screenplay and Introduction by Atom Egoyan, Afterward by Timothy Taylor

Egoyan's Ararat is a contemporary story of two estranged families and their search for reconciliation and truth. A film-within-a-film, it is also a historical re-enactment being made by a famous Armenian director, Edward Saroyan, whose production is based on Clarence Ussher's actual book An American Physician in Turkey, which depicts the Siege of Van and the Armenian Genocide of 1915. In the style of the Sweet Hereafter and his other works, Egoyan shifts seamlessly through time, exploring the quest for personal, sexual, and cultural identity through the intimate moments shared by lovers, families, enemies, and strangers.