Review of Don't Tell Me the Boy Was Mad

In 1915, on the eve of the First World War there were two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. On April 24, 1915, the Turkish government began deporting one million Armenians, and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of others outright, in what is now considered to be a deliberate act of ethnic cleansing. Six years later, on April 24, 1921, Soghomon Tehlirian, a member of the Armenian Liberation Army, assassinates Talaat Pasha, in Berlin, the man thought to have orchestrated the wholesale massacre of Armenians. At his subsequent trial, Soghomon Tehlirian rejects the charge of murder, claiming that killing Talaat Pasha was justified retribution for Turkish atrocities committed against Armenians, including every ember of his family. A jury of solid German burghers, agreed, and he is acquitted of all charges. From 1920s Berlin, the film moves to 1970s France, in particular the port city of Marseille. An Armenian family consisting of the husband, the wife, their son and the wife's aged mother, live under the one roof. Much to the annoyance of the parents, the grandmother spends her day singing to her grandchildren about the Turks who are a race of brutes. One day, the son, Aram, disappears and joins a group of Armenian patriots intent on wreaking havoc on Turks by killing as many as possible. The carefully laid plan backfires: the target, the Turkish ambassador is killed along with an innocent civilian who suffers horrendous injuries. Adam goes on the run to Lebanon, eventually joining the Armenian Liberation Army. "Don't Tell Me The Boy Was Mad" is not your usual film about revenge by one group, Armenians, and the enemy, Turks in general. In fact it explores the problem that, in pursuing revenge, innocent women and children will be caught in the crossfire: 'collateral damage' as it's charmingly called; in other words, the oft-quoted euphemism excuse for not allowing sentiment get in the way of the "Cause", that the ends always justifies the means. Meanwhile, Aram's mother is desperate to apologise to the victim of her son's bomb attack. When she finally asks him what she can do to help, he screams at her: "I'm in my twenties! Can you give me back my legs?" Gradually, Aram becomes more and more disillusioned with his comrades. In the end, he leaves. Director Robert Guediguian's film "Don't Tell Me The Boy Was Mad" shines a much-needed light on this terrible tragedy that, to this day, the Turkish government refuses to admit ever happened.