«Դու պետք է քո սեփական ֆիլմը նկարես» - Ինտերվյու Ռոբերտ ԿԵՇԻՇՅԱՆԻ հետ

Diana Stepanyan's article is devoted to an interview with the French film director of Armenian origin Robert Guédiguian [Kéchichian], timed to coincide with a discussion of his debut feature film "Aram" (2002).

Introduction and methodology
The material is structured as an extended interview, in which the director reconstructs the creative and biographical path that led to the creation of his first — and, in his own words, most important — film of his life. The author of the article traces three interconnected narrative lines: Kéchichian's professional path in cinema, his family history burdened by the memory of the Armenian Genocide, and the history of the conception and production of the film "Aram."

Professional path to directing
It is noted that Kéchichian came to directing after more than 16 years of work as an assistant on the sets of well-known French and international projects (Joyeuses Pâques by J. Lautner, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by P. Kaufman, La Cité de la peur by A. Berbérian, Taxi 2, and others), which gave him a complete understanding of film production even before he began work on his own screenplay.

Family memory and the Genocide
A significant part of the interview is devoted to the biography of the director's parents — natives of the Ottoman Empire, survivors of the Genocide who emigrated to France. It is emphasized:

the trauma of the father, who sought to integrate as fully as possible into French society and "forget himself as an Armenian";
the mother's hidden protest against the injustice done to the Armenian people;
the family's personal tragedy — the death of several children, which was reflected in the plot of the film;
the "debt" felt by the director toward the community and his ancestors, which became an inner impetus for creating the film.

The conception and content of the film "Aram"
Kéchichian describes the film as "a legacy of the memory of the Armenians of France" and an act of atonement for years of distancing himself from his Armenian identity. The key themes of the film are named as:

the struggle of Armenian fedayeen of the diaspora in 1975–1985;
the conflict of generations and the tragic nature of the relationship between father and son;
the question of the Armenian Genocide and its recognition (which coincided in time with the completion of the screenplay and the recognition of the Genocide by the French Parliament in 2001);
the conscious decision not to bring the image of the mother onto the screen, feelings toward whom remain an area not subject to artistic embodiment.

The film's title and casting choices
Separate attention is given to the symbolic significance of the name "Aram" — the father's true name, which had been replaced with the French variant "Armand" for the sake of assimilation; the restoration of this name in the film's title is interpreted as an act of restoring identity. The question of casting is also touched upon: the producers, among them Jean-Pierre Bacri and Agnès Jaoui, insisted on refusing the participation of a well-known French actor in favor of lesser-known performers, in order to preserve the integrity of the director's artistic vision.

Conclusion
The article concludes that "Aram" represents a rare example, in the history of the Armenian diaspora, of a feature film that addresses the theme of the struggle, identity, and memory of the Armenian people in France directly and without compromise — a work whose significance, despite its initially reserved reception, will over time receive fuller recognition.