Atom Egoyan was more than surprised when a Turkish journalist stood up at the Cannes press conference for Mr. Egoyan's new film, "Ararat," and invited it to the Istanbul Film Festival. Surprised, because the subject of "Ararat" is the killing of Armenians by Turkish soldiers of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, a slaughter that claimed at least a million lives. Armenians have long considered the deaths as attempted genocide, while the Turkish government has continued to maintain that the operations were no more than a tragic consequence of warfare. In Turkey, there are no hotter topics.

"Of course, there was applause," Mr. Egoyan said of the Turkish journalist's offer, "and it seemed like an amazing gesture, but then later on it was qualified. There were certain scenes, he told me, that may not be able to be shown."

Perhaps more than a few scenes. A few days after "Ararat," a Cannes premiere, the Turkish state minister, Yilmaz Karakoyunlu, told The Ankara Daily News: "Turkey will do everything possible against this film. It is a shameful production."

Standing at the center of a political firestorm is something new for Mr. Egoyan, who is one of Canada's most respected filmmakers. His work, which includes "The Sweet Hereafter" (1997) and "Exotica" (1994), generally deals with more personal issues, like the complex webs of love, guilt and secrecy that bind families together.

"For me," Mr. Egoyan said, " `Ararat' is not a film about the genocide but about what happens when an event like that is denied and how that begins to affect people's actions in the current day. You can be a grandchild of the Holocaust, or a great-grandchild of the Armenian genocide, and these issues do persist Ñ particularly, as in this case, if they are not resolved."

Mr. Egoyan was born in Egypt to Armenian parents and came to North America as a child. "When my family came to Canada, my parents were very assimilationist," he said. "I was raised in a community where we were the only Armenian family. But I was always aware of this, and when I came to Toronto at the age of 18 to study international relations, there was an Armenian student association, and I became aware of the details for the first time. I felt that I needed to tell people about it, that by telling I would be able to change things. If the film was invited to Istanbul, I would not hesitate to go, but there is no question of cutting it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/07/movies/07FLIC.html