Russell Crowe movie calling Greeks "Satan"s army" raises storm amid diaspora
Australians of Greek descent and Armenian organisations have slammed Russell Crowe and his new movie "The Water Diviner" for depicting indigenous Greeks who lived in Turkey during the First World War as "Satan"s army" and for completely ignoring the Armenian genocide.
The movie, which premiered in the actors" native Australia during Christmas, was supposed to present Australia and New Zealand"s joint military expedition in Gallipoli from the "Turkish point of view" but has been heavily criticised by the diaspora, as well as film critics and historians for its "fantastic propaganda".
The plot centers around an Australian man"s travels to eastern Thrace and Anatolia after the Battle of Gallipoli to try to find his three missing sons. At the time, Australians and New Zealanders were part of a military unit called Anzac.
In a recent interview, Russell Crowe defended his movie saying that "after 100 years, it"s time to expand that mythology", Australia "should be mature enough as a nation to take into account the story that the other blokes have to tell".
However, critics say this should include the story of the indigenous peoples of Anatolia who were being subjected to genocide at the time when the film is set, in the land where the film"s action unfolds.
The Spectator magazine said Crowe is simply "out of their depth".
"Leaving aside aesthetic considerations, the fact is the film’s lack of any historical context is breathtaking. There are many, but there is one really glaring omission. It so happens that the well-documented genocide of the Armenians at the hands of the Turks was initiated on the day immediately before the Gallipoli landing, an overlap that traditionally receives hardly a mention from Australian historians, and no reference whatsoever in this film."
Honest History President, Peter Stanley, who reviewed the film, said it suffered from a "fundamental lack of credibility."
Major General David McLachlan, president of the Victorian RSL, among others, said the plot is "utterly without foundation". In Major General McLachlan"s words, "Russ must have been asleep during that lesson at school",
According to Dr Panagiotis Diamantis, a History professor at the University of Sydney, in their efforts to present an anti-war film, the writers "ended up presenting the victims as perpetrators and those butchered as barbarians."
Source: The Spectator, neoskosmos.com, armenpress.am
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