BORN IN ADANA

By David HOVAN

SQUARE MANGO FILMS - as PROD

Documentary - Completed 2014

A haunting, moving story of survival against all odds.

    • Year of production
    • 2014
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • CANADA
    • Languages
    • ARMENIAN, ENGLISH
    • Duration
    • 60 mn
    • Director(s)
    • David HOVAN
    • Producer(s)
    • Nora ARMANI
    • Synopsis
    • One of the few remaining survivors of the Armenian Genocide bears witness to his family’s struggle and survival through the first Genocide of the 20th century.
      Born in Adana is a unique documentary based on events that occurred between 1915-1923 during the last vestiges of the Ottoman Empire and the newly formed Turkish Republic. It’s a story told by 93 year old Antranig Teghararian, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. It unfolds with rare archival footage from the era and some of the images will be indelibly etched in many viewers’ minds. What makes this film different from many others on the subject is that a pious, modest man tells the story in an unfailingly honest way, while talking about unimaginable atrocities with a gentle voice, as if he has already forgiven those who committed these crimes against his family and his ancestors.
      The story begins with the deportation of his parents from their native town of Diyarbakir, Turkey in 1915. It reveals the difficulties encountered by his parents and how two of his very young brothers who died from starvation during his parent’s deportation. The story then follows his parents in their quest for safety through the Middle East and their next temporary location in the city of Aleppo, present-day Syria, but previously part of the Ottoman Empire. Further complications arise, forcing his father to flee Aleppo in the middle of the night, having been condemned to death by a Turkish Military tribunal, and being forced to leave his wife behind and seek refuge in the city of Adana, Turkey until 1918. After the declaration of the armistice, his parents are subsequently reunited in Adana, Turkey where he was born on July 4, 1921. The surrender of Adana to Turkey by the French, causes yet another upheaval and further deportation of the Armenians of that city, and his parents are forced to flee yet again and barely make their way to Beirut, Lebanon, their final destination.
      To date, no one knows the final resting place of his two brothers who perished in the desert.
    • Beginning of shooting
    • Dec 01, 2013