Filmmaker Eric Nazarian’s new film “Bolis” will have its North American premiere at the Arpa International Film Festival. The film will screen on September 24 at 6 p.m. at the Egyptian Theater, according to Asbarez.
The film entirely shot in Turkey, focuses on Armenak, who is a successful oud player and travels to Istanbul for the first time for an important musical event. His feelings toward the city, which his Armenian grandfather fled at the tip of the sword in 1915, are very complex. Armenak arrives full of prejudice, expecting to hate the place, but instead finds it very familiar. The decision comes naturally to him to search for his grandfather’s old musical instrument shop with only an old photo and a street name.
“My impressions in the beginning were very complex, ambivalent and nostalgic. I grew up with the images of “Old Bolis” in my mind; the Bolis of Ara Guler, Siamanto, Daniel Varoujan, Orhan Pamuk and Udi Hrant. I wanted to go with an open mind yet I was haunted by the demons of the genocide. The spirit of Hrant Dink was my traveling companion,” Nazarian said in an interview with Asbarez in April.
