English director to make film about Astra Sabondjian, Genocide survivor

PanARMENIAN.Net - A true story of love, loss and survival set against the backdrop of the Armenian Genocide is being brought to life by two women from Muswell Hill, a suburb of north London.

Based on the novel Affinity with Night Skies by local author Astrid Katcharyan, the story is to be made into a film called Astra by Director Athena Mandis and tells the tale of how one woman made her own history and changed the lives of future generations of women in the process.

An early suffragette, the protagonist Astra Sabondjian not only chose her own path to love at a time when most women had arranged marriages, but also found time to carve out a career in journalism, save her husband from the gallows, raise a family, open a prestigious couturier house and school for dressmakers in Athens.

Spanning two generations the story is told over countless wars in the Ottoman Empire as Astra and her husband Setrag, a liberal newspaper editor fight for their love and survival. The story begins in 1905 in Erzeroum (Eastern Turkey) as Astra and her family flee to Smyrna (Ismir, Western Turkey) to escape the Turkish massacre of Armenians.

Athena says: “This story has real resonance to me as big events have shaped where I am today. As the daughter of a Greek Albanian trade unionist who fled to the UK to take political asylum I know only too well the ripple effect of conflict and Diaspora.” She adds: “This is a story of a woman who weaves in and out of patriarchal society to create her own compelling history. It begs to be told and I am hugely excited to be part of it.”

The two women are taking the script to the Venice Film festival later this year and are looking for film finance.

“Like the protagonist it is named after it is written in the stars that this film will be made”, say the two women. “It’s just a matter of time until the world falls in love with Astra.”