THE HISTORY OF THE FILM VERSIONS OF FRANZ WERFEL’S NOVEL“THE FORTY DAYS OF MUSA DAGH”AND THE DENIAL OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Abstract

Giving a thorough assessment to Franz Werfel’s novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, its relevance and historical-political significance, the article presents the attempts of film adaptation of the given novel, which has a  remarkable literary value. At the same time, we have focused on the obstacles, which have appeared in this process. It is known from the history of cinema that in 1935 our famous compatriot Ruben Mamoulian (1897-1987), who was considered the heavy artillery of Broadway and Hollywood in those days, received an offer to make a film based on this novel at the The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studio. However, under the unprecedented Turkish pressure on the American government, the film adaptation process was suspended. Decades later, in 1982, the novel was adapted into a movie by the Armenian Diaspora. The producer of the film was John Kurkjian, and the director – Sarky (Sargy) Mouradian (1931-2022). Back in the Soviet years, in 1985, Musa Dagh was also staged in the Armenian TV Theater. The directors of the five-part performance were Grigor Chalikyan and Herbert Gasparyan. The historical event on Mount Musa that formed the basis of the novel about the heroic struggle of Armenians against the Turks was also included in one of the last episodes of The Promise (dir. Terry George, 2016). The article also emphasizes the problem of denial of the Armenian Genocide, which had its actual expression and consequences in cinema.