During my childhood and youth I always had the feeling that my father was hiding something from me. Unlike my brother and sister, I kept on asking many questions and finally I got my father to jot down his memoirs.
Reading his life story, for the first time I got an insight into the puzzle of his life. But my questions weren’t answered; even more appeared. I wanted to conceive the historic-­‐ political coherences. In which way did all of these global occurrences affect my father’s life – and also in some ways touch my own? That’s what inspired my idea of taking him to the places of his childhood and posing my questions to him during the journey.
I guess, I’m part of a new generation of migrants, feeling the necessity to understand their roots. So, with this film I would like to inspire people to discover their own roots, but on the other hand to provoke a sense of understanding and tolerance among the people of the migrant’s new homeland.
What was the price Manuel had to pay for his new life?
World history has dispersed the family members to all ends of the globe - Germany, Austria, Russia, Lebanon, Canada, US and UK. Manuel left his parents behind in order to support them from afar. That’s what his brother and sister later too did, because they didn’t envisage a future for themselves there. The parents stayed behind -­‐ alone in a country where civil war wouldn’t let them have at least some peace in their old age.
The point is not to look for a victim or a guilty party, or to arouse a sense of pity.
I want to find out what my father – who stands steadfast not only for other members of the family and for other displaced Armenians, but also for migrants all over the world – was ready to sacrifice in order to create a peaceful and better life for himself and his children. What kind of methods do people develop to overcome, or even just repress, the pain of losing home and family?
Not one member of the family has ever lived in their ethnic homeland of Armenia. I am sure that each of them has been dreaming of doing so, but almost no one out of the displaced Armenians has fulfilled that dream and found their home there.
What does Armenia mean for Manuel? Why is this country so important for all Armenians, even though many of them are almost perfectly integrated in foreign countries? But can people get happy in a “homeland” that was never really their home?
In the times of globalization and migration, stories like Manuel’s are no exception. For this reason a lot of people can identify with it. This is true for Europe, where there currently is a huge debate about integration, but also for the Middle East.
In reaction to my trailer’s previous presentations, I received e-­‐mails from total strangers, sometimes with Armenian roots, but also from other migrants with different backgrounds. They wanted me to know that my work and this project is of great importance to them, as either they or their ancestors went through similar struggles and they feel connected and identify to the questions this film tries to answer.
Even then, Manuel’s story is unique in the sense that his personal fate is intertwined with several historical conflicts, such as the Genocide on the Armenians, both the First and Second World War, the Palestinian-­‐Israeli conflict, not to mention the civil war in Lebanon. But only at that old age he is able to visit the country, where his mother tongue is spoken.