Original subtitles

Longtime ago it was called Armenia

Without exactly knowing much where this land can be found

For more than 2000 years the Armenian ancestors coming

from everywhere across the country

Tried hard to stay attached to their cultural identity

Despite killings and persecutions

Hoping each time that it will be the last time

One of the first christian communities in the world

The many invaders that continuously retrace and change the borders of my country

following their occupational ambitions placed my country under the Turkish occupation

Behind the deceiving silence of the region that invites for praying

The life of the Armenian filled with pride will be interrupted

On the burning sands of Deir ez-Zor that new people

Who are fanatically passionated by killing

Remains the souls, Remains the memories

Remains a poet on his knees

that listens to the passing wind

This wind of Deir ez-Zor that

from the number of children killed

Created a flute, and

from the horror of this peace

Whistled an immortal and majestic melody

In this second of June, of the year 1921

I declare the opening of the court session of Berlin

I remind the experts and the witnesses of this case

The importance and the sacred nature of this case

I also warn you that the law reserves a harsh

penalty for anyone who gives a false testimony

Intentionally or not

court, start reading the actual accusations

Segomont Terenion, born in the 2nd of April 1997, a Pakreek

with the name Charlton Borg...

Is accused of killing in the 15th of March 1921

Former interior Turkish minister Talal Basha

and have committed the crime with premeditation

A crime that counts based on the law articles 211

of the German penalty code

Accused stand up

Segomont Terenion, please respond to the question

by yes or no to the question if you are guilty

Are you guilty of committing this crime with premeditation

No, I don't think I am guilty

My conscience is clear

Yes, I have killed a man

But I am not a murderer

Good, sit down

We will proceed to the listening of the witnesses

Madam Elizabeth Getmaan of number 37 Anduchtras

You swear that you will say, all the truth and nothing but the truth

I swear

Tell the jury what you know

I was the landlord of this young man at,.... the time

when the event took place

He was a friendly young man, truthful, calm and very clean

He cleaned his house by himself

In the morning of,... the 15th of march

My servant told me that the young boy

was crying in his room

and he drank cojnac

I thought that maybe, he had lost someone

NIchols Yessen, merchant at Charlaton Borg

We are listening..

When I rushed to the plaintiff to arrest him

I also asked him why he killed him

He replied, I am Armenian he is Turkish

this is not of a concern to the Germans

Lola Benenson

Teacher

I have given Mr Terenion a few lessons in the German language

This boy is visibly suffering morally

He always arrived with a terribly sad face

Mrs Beneson

Did he express the motives of his sadness

Only once

He told me that he has no friends

and all his parents have been killed

He has never told you anything about Talat Basha

Never

Good, I thank you.. Madame

Mr. president

It would be interesting to emphasize to the jury that the Turkish minister

Talat Bashar was condemned with the death penalty

by the federal court of his country

5th July 1919, for crimes against humanity

He ran away carrying with him ten thousand livre of public treasure

He was refugee in Berlin under the false name of

Saleebe

I would like to point to the honorable defender

that we are not judging the right people

It's not Talat Basha that we are judging today

But his assassin

Segomont Terenion

Mr prosecutor, I reassure you that I am not mistaken about this case

But I will show in front of this court

that you are mistaken about the identity of the killer

Mr president

Let me very quickly give you the facts

The Jury

On this month of June 1915

About 6 years ago

This man that you are judging today

He will see in a few seconds

the skull of his brother smashed by the hit of an axe

His mom, her face exploding from a bullet

Drops in front of him

Segomont Terenion, terrified

and now paralysed by what he saw

He also listens to the shouting

of his two sisters, 14 and 16

that the Turkish police put them aside behind the counter

Before he collapsed on his turn

from the blood which he didn't know

whether it was his or his assassinated brothers

There is nothing around him but hundreds of dead bodies

Disfigured bodies of women, children and old people

Mr Jury

one survivor by coincidence

of this death road, managed to escape

of this monstrous massacre that is beyond imagination

Is going to witness

Listen to her very well

My name is Christen Terebashion

I was born at Arezoon

Our deportation started in June 1915

We where four groups

How many people was your group composed of

500 families

Which means, seven or eight thousand people

We were 21 members in my family

I assisted at the death of all my family, expect for three

Who have managed to escape the massacre

How did the massacre, which killed your family happened

When we have reached to Malta

They drove us to a mountain

They then separated the men from the women

but each group can see what happens to the other

All the men were killed with an axe

which created a river of blood

Tell the Jury what happened to the women

When the night came

The soldiers choose the most beautiful women

The youngest

Those who resisted

and refused to give themselves away

They made a hole in their bodies and were split in half

Even the pregnant women

They did not leave them alone

The Turkish opened their stomach

Pulled their babies

Madame, you confirm that you have witnessed this

this, unbelievable and horrible event

I swear Mr president

One of my sisters was part of those pregnant women

The court thank you Madame

Doctor Uhan Islatuse

You are German and the author of an extended report about the Armenian massacre

This report is will remain a secret until the end of war

Because of the German and Turkish alliance

I would like to ask you to limit your testimony to the question

The horrors that have just described

of the 1915 massacre

have they generally happened as described

and, the personal events faced by the accused

Were they credible?

Mr president

to describe the events in such realistic details

and lived by hundreds of survivors

They were published by American, English and French reviews

The facts are indisputable

Only the brutal methods that seem uncomprehending on this 20th century

Permitted the Turkish to execute more than one million humans

in such little time

the deportation of Areminan's

was decided by Turkish authorities

was executed in the middle of 1915

Under the directions of Talat Basha interior minister at that time

and Lonver Basha minister of war

Mr president

can I ask the witness if the reasons for this massacre

were of religious nature

it was a traffic in the name of the religion

because the main person responsible, Talat, Enver

Jamal and Naze was totally

With the intention to achieve the goal of an

Islamic Turkish empire

Destroying all that is not purely Turkish

That is exact. Actually, the key word which was pronounced by Talat Basha

The goal of the deportation was the Neon

Which means the destination where we do not return

The Jury 1500000 killed

who are left along the roads of Karpot, Zaeton, Trepeson, Dair Alzoor

Ask you to consciously respond to this unique question

Segonmant Terenoion is he guilty of killing Talat Basha

At this exact moment

The survivors from these assasinated people

Dispersed onto the four corners of this world

Looking for a place to be exiled

Had their eyes fixed on you

and in a thousand years

Mr Jury

Will still talk about your sentenced decision

Is she ill Mayrig?

No it's not a real illness Azad

It's called sea sickness

It goes away when we are on firm land

Tell me Terinion

Was he condemned or not?

This I cannot tell you Mr Zakarian

It's a German paper

and me, I don't understand the German language

You don't even know how to read the titles

"DASH SHOP FEN GANEIR NIEN"

"NEIN?" I'm sure it means No

but no at what?

This I cannot tell you

Is there anyone here who speaks German!?

NO

"HAGOUV"

"SARAPELL"!

We were on the same boat!?

Yes, but me I'm going to continue travelling

Have you chosen France?... Is this definite?

Yes, It's definitive

and you?

I'm going to Venezuela

But do you have Parents or family, over there?

No

No, I don't know anyone there

But its a nice country name for a bachelor like me

Think about it like another women

"Venezuela"

Agouv, it seems that there is a person

who wants to see you, he is waiting for you

behind the gate of the harbour

Okay, I'm going "BARI SHARO BAT"

Hameedka

I wrote by chance to you

I never thought you'll receive my letter

I got the letter 2 weeks ago

I used to come every morning to wait for your boat

and each time they told me you'll come in 2 days

Yesterday in the night

I had the feeling

I don't know why

But I knew it will be this morning

Tell me Haka

Was Terinion liberated?

Nobody speaks German Here

Yes he was liberated, it was an anonymous decision

Everyone, listen to me

Terinion was liberated

Terinion was liberated

I am very happy you are here Haka

You haven't changed, you know

It's true Mr. Hagouv

Especially I haven't got married

OK, I will wait for you at the exit

"Zakarian Hagouv"

Yes sir

"Zakarian Araksi"

Ne Boulotian

"Zakarian Azad" Son of Zakarian and Araksi Zakarian

Agna and Gayanay Boulitian

They are my two sisters, Sir

My first Childhood memory goes back to this stamp

That never finished staying in the air

The faces of my mum, dad and my two aunts

focused on this object, underlining

the importance of it's fall on our papers

In front of a stall my dad exchanged

his beautiful piece of gold for a handful of dirty papers

a small booklet and some metal coins

His first purchase, was for me

An ice cream cone

which didn't reach to my aspiration of expected fruity taste

We are in France now

It is not polite to lick the ice cream with your tongue

Come quickly, come quickly ... Here

You will see, it will become a souvenir for the future

Without being noticed

go and have a look in the display window

Tell me I didn't see properly

It's unbelievable

Is it what I saw?

Yes, but what did you see?

OK. let's go

We have rented

Azad come on!

Azad

Coming coming

Tell me Sir, it's not a hotel here

how many people are you in this family?

My husband, my son and my two sisters Madame

The man who came to see me

He did not tell me of the two sisters

Isn't that right Sir?

I didn't know that they were travelling

Excuse me

I would like to excuse everyone but while doing that

But that makes it five people renting rather than three

Please take this little extra money to compensate for your damage

If that's okay Madame

remark that what I have said is because

I want to be aware of what is happens in this house

If you are five you are not three

Now because I know there is no more problem

we will re-arrange it at the end of the month

Isn't that true?

of course Madame

It's upstairs, on the forth floor

Here it is Madame and Sir

For the kitchen, come and see here

For the kitchen you are going to share it

with the neighbour in front

Just for cooking your plates

Isn't it?

This is the toilet for this floor

Melisane,I'm coming down

It's the seller who is selling snails

Oooh, It's disgusting

I was like you, but I assure you they are very, very nice

Tell me Akaa, do they employ new people where you work

I work in a refinement mill of sugar and salt

Why are you asking me this?

For me

ohhh, It's not a place for you Mr Hagouv

Especially, in the section of available jobs. Zakarian the son of the very famous trader of Mermarer sea

You see it is not a place for you

And where is a place for me?

Listen to me carefully Akar

The big illness of exiled people is the nostalgia

Of what they have lost

It starts by those who cry ..

Those who goes back in memory, to what they were and what they have become

The nostalgia is the luxury of an artist

we need words that allow us to live

then tomorrow when you go to your factory

I will come with you

Come back immediately, tell me mother

What is to be an Armenian?

I told you come back to the house

Its nothing

They are all like this

Tell me Akar, what is it like in Marseilles

Marseilles is a big city compared to ...

Clearly there is everything

things that are very good and less good

Open the door for me Akar

The tenants next door are eating in front of the oven

I didn't want to disturb them

But, did they see you with your plate?

I don't know

but, they must have seen me

because I stayed there for a while in the hallway

They acted as if they didn't see me

The landlord told us that we can use the kitchen in turns

Only for the cooking

Yes, we should take the food to our rooms

Then I don't understand

Excuse me Mr, Madame, please

Sit down now, don't move.. you Understand

Do you understand me? Are you kidding?

You don't come here to make your laws

Antone don't get upset like this

Antone ... calm down

I will calm down when If want

If he is not happy, he can go back to where he came from

Is it clear?

...

It must be horrible

I have never seen anything more stupid

All we are asking for is fire

From the good of your heart. Madame and Sir

You don't have a little bit of fire for us please?

A piece of fire

This I think what started the idea of a bakery

Excuse me Sir

Please

would you please accept this plate

in a small corner of your oven

We don't have anything to cook it with

First door to your right

Wait for me at the end of the corridor

I will come to open for you

Thank you

From a hostile France several floors up

We have discovered a France that is more neighbourly

And a little bit of friendship

in the oven of a bakery

Azad

Have another small piece

Thank you aunt Anna

Only this one

look how tender it is

It's going to melt in your mouth like butter

I'm not hungry, Aunt Anna

As you wish

Nobodies hungry

We hardly touched the plate

It wasn't good?

it was superb Madame Anna

Before, when i saw it coming out of the oven

Covered with it's brown coat

the rosy meaty inside, all surrounded with cooked potatoes

The tomato and the pepper cooked with the butter

I thought of eating it all alone

but now, I've lost my appetite

Come

Lets have a little bit of fresh air

Tell me Akar

Were you with my brothers in the deportation?

Yes, Mr Hagov

I was with them

It's you who have reason

......

....

...

...

...

They told us

You need to run away immediately

Without crying about what you leave behind

Your brothers, Aram, Neran and Eonique

They stayed

to save the goods of Zakerian and his children

they have lost the goods, and

their lives

Luckily, you still have a part of the family

The coffee is ready

Come on, it's time you go to bed

It's good, to find you again

From father to son we have always worked

With the Zackerian family

and you have never let us feel

that you have been the boss

Don't say something stupid

Tell me Akar

Do you know the son of Mr Papazion

The doctor Vaskin Papazion

of Paris

OO LA LAAA, do I know him?

His formidable, he was with us

of Monday morning of the conviction ...

...

...

they told us, its about a small movement of the population

for military reasons

they promised to carry us at the exit of the city

for two hundred livres per person

Those who had paid for the others that didn't have

Nearly, after two hours

When we got the carriages

The soldiers they started to laugh

For days and days we walked under the burning sun

covered in sand dust

without anything to eat or water

We crossed the deported groups of

Nanadakhapout, Goutsa, Ezmeeet, Adabavat and Tribevant

They came from everywhere in thousands

We have passed in-front of hundreds of bodies without heads

The leaders of the Turkish groups

Have fixed at 600 livres for every Areminan killed

The thing that was not possible to support

is the sound of the crying children

The Turkish soldiers attached them in twos

to throw them from the top of the hill in the cold

and the screaming of the mom's who became crazy

From the pain they started a crazy dance

and what happened to father Serope

he was ridiculed

The Turkish soldiers undressed him

He was a respectable old man

With his long white beard walking without clothes

In the beginning we thought that the superior authorities

didn't know what we were facing

And that all our suffering is coming from the soldiers

But then when the governor Jerdef Bak

passed in front of our convoy

I started to shout "JERDEF BAK"

Leave him

Who are you?

What do you want?

...

My respected Sir

they are killing us

We were thousands and thousands

Now we are only a few hundreds

And our feet are filled with blood

We will give you new shoes Akar

Shoes that cannot wear out

And the others?

I will show them your shoes

If they still want I will give them the same

Thank you your excellency

I was treated like an animal

The Turkish soldiers returned me back to my convoy

On every step it was like a 100000 needles penetrated into my heart

But at the same time

but something stronger pushed me to stay alive

to say that I have lived in hell

A convoy of several thousands of deported people

ends up with only a hundred survivors

to prove to foreign ministries

that it was a simple displacement of population

the last village that we have crossed, is Halived

After Halived

it was a desert and death from thirst

I see a big, immense oasis

It's in your imagination

It's called a mirage

because we need water, we end up seeing water

But it's just an appearance

I am as hungry as I am thirsty but still I don't see any cooked meat

I tell you it is water not an illusion

Listen to me carefully

This oasis is for our Kurdish friends

He who wants to drink needs to pay a 100 livres per person

You know very well we don't have anything

Because you have taken everything from us

But this water over there

it's not for the Kurdish people nor for the Turkish

It's water for everybody

It's water from the sky

So, listen to me

Mr Officer

My name is Vascual Papzion

for every person in danger

I order these people to drink this rain water

Also me I had the thirst that was burning my body

I had the thirst to drink the ocean and the fish

But to escape death I had to fake death

I didn't even resemble a body that is worth searching

The difficulty was to stay still facing

all the unsupportable pain that I had

the eyes of your brother Aram

These eyes that I saw laughing so many times

These eyes as if they were telling me why am I dead?

How long have I stayed in this field

A passing caravan picked me up

They were also Turkish or Kurdish but not the same

Of all these people I was the only one that survived

...

With a broken body

...

My idea to return from this road of death

to tell people what a man can do to another man

This night

Akar with his sad face

Brutally pulled me out from my world of fairy tales

I suddenly understood this ghost ship

That will one day take us back

my two big brothers and my sister

It was only a lie of love to delay my pain

To deceive death my family were divide in two

we were the ones who lived by luck

The others

They sank under the boiling sand of the desert

So, this night I lost the way I see the world as a child

...

Yes, be careful

They are everywhere

Shh, don't wake up the little one

What's going on?

We didn't want to wake you up

Don't worry

It's nothing

What is it Papa?

They are flying beatles

We should be very careful not to squash them

As they will leave a red stain on the covers

With a bad smell

Are they dangerous?

Not at all

But they are very annoying

because they come out at night

They search human skin

During day time, they hide in the cracks of the wall

Look, look over there Papa

Surely they are not millions w

When we kill them all it will be all finished

No, they are not millions

but they make hundreds of eggs

They multiply

When you think there is nothing left

There is still more

We need to complain to the lady

Whom we are paying for the room

Definitely not

She will say that we brought them with us from Armenia

Yes beautiful

How can I serve you?

....

And one kilo of potatoes, please

My eggs are very fresh they were made today

..

Excuse me Ms we are strangers

What is the biggest school in Marseilles?

It's for my son

...

It depends on what you want to learn

You have this school ...

You have to study there for two years to get a certificate

And now, I would like to tell you which one is the biggest school

Wait

Hey Ferenan

Are you there?

Yes I am here.. I'm sleeping

This is only to ask you something

What's your response if we ask you

What is the biggest school in Marseille?

I will answer, the Centelaire collage

Centelaire collage

This is what he does best

... I never knew how much

But it's not for free.. this I can tell you

The state colleges are for free or nearly free

Tell me Teresesa

Your son goes to the Centeraire collage?

Yes

You don't know by chance

How much does it cost, to go to this school?

Oh la la

These are not things we discuss

with the chef in the kitchen

But when I went to pick up my son

There were lots of women wearing expensive jackets

The cars in front of the school

We see that these are people without government benefits

Oh I remembered

There is someone that can better inform you

Mister Hug the pharmacist his cousin goes to this collage

Collage Centelair

Preparation for Bacheloria

Religious inscription

Mr Hug the first class pharmacist

He talked about the collage Centelair

Emphasising money spent by semester

This number has no meaning for me

For me money is a notion that is limited

to the eight buttons of the dress for my mother

Which covers each a piece of gold

She tore off one button on the border

When we arrived to Marseille

And a second one yesterday afternoon

To buy a kitchen corner