The American Variety magazine has published an interview with Joe Berlinger, director of the movie “Intent to Destroy.”
Variety: Armenian Genocide film director unable to get Turkish official to go on camera
STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS:As per the article, this film shows how the history of Armenian Genocide continues to be disputed and denied more than a century later.
A case in point: He was unable to get a Turkish official to go on camera, as the government refuses to recognize the 1915 atrocities as genocide and has influenced its key Western ally, the United States, not to do so either.
“I wish I could say that I was so prescient that when I started making the documentary, I would realize how relevant and important it is for today,” Berlinger told the magazine.
“Intent to Destroy” interweaves the history of Armenian Genocide with a movie being made about it, Terry George’s “The Promise,” released in 2016. Even now, Berlinger noted, “The Promise” was barraged by a flood of negative reviews on the internet even before the movie had been released.
Berlinger noted that Hollywood studios tried to make a movie about the genocide back in the 1930s, but Turkey made it clear that the industry would be banned from the country were they to proceed. The project was dropped.
Joe Berlinger added that sweeping “the truth under the rug, out of self interest, is a real warning sign of where that can lead, which is where we are today.”
