Genocide movie "Armenia, My Love" to premiere in U.S.

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Armenia, My Love," a movie about the Genocide will premiere Thursday, April 14 at the Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena, the Los Angeles Times reports.

It includes a question-and-answer session with the film's writer and director, Diana Angelson, as well as the cast and crew.

On Friday, the theatrical release extends to the MGN Five Star Cinema in Glendale and the Laemmle NoHo 7 in North Hollywood.

For Shake Tukhmanyan, an actress since age 17, starring in "Armenia, My Love" was an especially emotional experience.

The Glendale resident, who plays a grandmother in the film, was traveling through the desert, filming a sequence that depicts the deadly travails many Armenians were subject to in 1915, when the Ottoman Empire began systematically killing more than 1.5 million of them in an effort to force them out of their historic homeland.

Tukhmanyan's character, Anoush, was struggling to push on with her family in what ultimately became a deadly march.

Like so many others, her character's family had lost their home and an otherwise happy, peaceful existence LA Times says.

"While "Armenia, My Love" does expose the harsh realities faced by the entire Armenian people who were violently ripped from their homeland, it is "Armenia, My Love's" strong messages of hope, love, faith, perseverance and strength that I wanted to prevail," Angelson said in a statement.

The film's release coincides, nearly to the day, with the 101-year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24.