Filmvisning: Grandma's Tattoo - Suzanne Khardalian

Grandma’s Tattoos is a personal film about what happened to many of the Armenian women during the genocide 1915. Author and filmmaker Suzanne Khardalian makes a personal journey into her own family to investigate the truth behind Khanoum, her late grandmother.

The film is like a ghost story; a mystery, a taboo. No one wants to tell the whole story. In order to bring the pieces of the puzzle together we move between different scenes, from today’s welfare Sweden all the way to Suzanne Khardalian’s childhood Beirut.

In the film we meet Grandmother’s sister, 98 years old Lucia, who today is living in Hollywood. Lucia too has those odd tattoos. She is willing to tell us only a part of the story; how she tried to escape together with her sister and mother during the Armenian Genocide in 1915, instead they ended up living with a Kurdish tribe for several years. We also meet with Aunt Marie, grandma’s only still living child in Beirut. But aunt Marie doesn’t know the whole story either. Grandma has never told it to her. It was a taboo to talk about the “unspeakable”. Aunt Marie too has the same unpleasant memories as I have of Grandma. Grandma avoided all physical contact. She did not like to be touched or to touch. She was never close to anyone, not even to her own husband...

It’s finally Suzanne’s mother who tells us the story about Grandmother. Grandma Khanoum was just about twelve years old when she was raped in front of her own mother and sister by the Kurdish boatman on the river Euphrates, when they were escaping from the genocide.

Grandma’s fate was not an aberration. On the contrary tens of thousands of Armenian children and teenagers were raped and abducted, kept in slavery. Some of these young girls ended up in Fresno, California, where the local Americans called them the blue lips. We have found the victims’ descendents who also suffer from guilt and shame.

Director: Suzanne Khardalian, filmdirector /writer, Sweden.

Suzanne Khardalian is an independent filmmaker and writer. She studied journalism in Beirut and Paris and worked as a journalist in Paris until 1988 when she started to work with films. She holds a Masters Degree in International Law and Diplomacy from Fletcher School at Tuft's University and contributes with articles to different journals. She had directed a dozen films that have been shown both in Europe and the USA.

Producer: PeÅ Holmquist, HB PeÅ Holmquist Film (Sweden)

PeÅ Holmquist Film is a production company established in 1973.The company has been producing films mostly for Scandinavian TV-channels often with Scandinavian co-producers. Several films have been sold all over the world.

Selected Filmography by Suzanne Khardalian and PeÅ Holmquist:

Back to Ararat (1988); Unsafe Ground 1993); The Lion from Gaza (1996); Her Armenian Prince (1997); From Opium to Chrysanthemums (2000); Where Lies My Victory (2002); I hate Dogs (2005); Bullshit (2006); Young Freud in Gaza (2009).

Lenght: 58 minutes

Language: Engelska

Texting: No texting

Recommended for ages 13 and over.