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Aurora's Sunrise

Aurora's Sunrise (Armenian: Արշալույսի լուսաբացը) is a 2022 adult animated documentary film directed by Inna Sahakyan. It is based on the life of Aurora Mardiganian, an Armenian Genocide survivor who after her escape became an actress in the United States. The film includes short scenes of the film Auction of Souls, a silent film from 1919 on the Armenian Genocide, in which Aurora Mardiganian had the leading role.

Synopsis

Aurora Mardiganian was born into a large family in Eastern Anatolia. After her father was killed, her family was sent on to death marches where many of her relatives died. She was then sold into a Turkish harem from where she eventually manages to flee first to St.Petersburg in Russia and later to New York. There, her biography became some sort of a success and a book was written about it and a film was produced about the Armenian Genocide in which Mardiganian played the leading role.

Production

Inna Sahakyan began its development in 2014 but she had no prior experience in making an animated film. Since 2015 the Zoryan Institute supported the realization of the film by signing an agreement with Bars Media. The Zoryan Institute provided interviews with Aurora Mardiganian, recorded before Mardiganian's death. The decision to make an animated documentary from her story, was motivated because animation enabled much more freedom in expression techniques. Armenian colors and symbols were included in the film and the paper cutout CG animation technique was used, where only a few frames per second are animated. The film began to be produced in 2019, but the process was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and then also the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020. At the time of the conflict the production was helped strongly by Lithuanians and the Germans. The film is a co-production of Bars Media from Armenia, Broom Films from Lithuania and the Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion from Germany.

Release

The film premiered in June 2022 when it was shown at the Annecy International Animation Festival. It premiered in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia in November. It is Armenia's entry to the Academy Awards for International Feature Film in 2023, becoming the second animated documentary film to be nominated for that section after Flee from Denmark in 2022. Unlike Flee, it was not selected as a nominee for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

On October 23, 2023, the film will be broadcast on the American channel PBS through its POV television series.

Awards and recognition

Audience Award at Animation Is Film, 2022
Asia Pacific Screen Award, 2022, Australia — Best Animated Feature Film
Armenia's entry to the Academy Awards, 2022
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, 2022, Estonia – Baltic Competition, Award for the Best Baltic Producer for Co-production
Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival 2022, Armenia, International Competition – Silver Apricot Winner
MiradasDoc, 2023, Spain – Best Feature Length Documentary Award Winner
Movies that Matter Festival, 2023, Netherlands – Audience Award Winner
21st International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, 2023, Switzerland, — Grand Prix de Geneve Winner
Europa! Europa Film Festival, 2023, Australia — Audience Choice Award Winner

Critical Response

Since premiering in June 2022 the film has had mostly positive reviews from critics, currently holding a high score on film and television review-aggregation websites Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd. Brian Tallerico, managing editor of RogerEbert.com, awarded Aurora's Sunrise three and a half out of four stars, describing the film as 'a stunning hybrid that melds animation, interview footage with its subject, and a 1919 silent film once thought lost to history that’s about her life' and 'a reminder that film doesn't just record history, it can transport us through it.' The film made The New York Times "Critic's Pick" list prior to the start of its limited theatrical run in North America, with critic Teo Bugbee calling Aurora's Sunrise a 'standout documentary.'