‘The Promise’ Gets April Release Date; Film Stars Christian Bale, Oscar Isaac and Charlotte Le Bon

Kerkorian could have made such a film in years past when he owned studios, but the timing and team he wanted never came together to fulfill his vision. Despite being years apart, Kerkorian and Esrailian formed a close friendship that set the wheels in motion for the long-awaited project. “He just became a dear friend and mentor. He was incredibly smart — smarter than anyone with multiple degrees after their name, including myself. He really identified certain things that he wanted to pursue and used his instincts to drive him to success. He thought about the film project. He wanted it to have a love story. And he wanted to have some of the best actors in the world. He didn’t want a history lesson but wanted a sweeping throwback movie.”

The whole idea, Esrailian said, was to make the movie marketable.

“If he wanted the film to be seen by a wide audience, he knew he had to make it appealing not just to history buffs,” Esrailian said.

Unfortunately, Esrailian said, the events of today, in some of the same regions depicted in the film, harken back to the dark days of a century ago.

“Events today make it more important than ever. The events happening in the Middle East and other parts of the world, the forced migration, the persecution of different ethnic groups and patterns that were experienced by Armenians 101 years ago,” are still happening, he said.

For Kerkorian, the film had to have upbeat elements of Armenian culture, too, Esrailian said. “We wanted to capture not just the Genocide but raise awareness about and celebrate the Armenian culture. We wanted the film to tell people in the non-Armenian world that our identity and existence is much more than just the Genocide. We want people to understand that Armenians have not just survived the Genocide but thrived. We wanted to show that celebratory aspects of our culture exist, such as music, art, family, intellect, creativity, and resilience.”

For the American-born Esrailian, the Genocide is not just part of history; it is part of his narrative. His great-grandparents were Genocide survivors and in fact, his great-grandfather sang in Komitas Vartabed’s choir in Constantinople (Istanbul). One of the family’s treasures is a photo of this historic choir with Komitas.

“It’s in my DNA,” he said.

The Stars Align

Director George was “available and extremely interested” in the subject of the Armenian Genocide, Esrailian said, based on his intensive research into the Rwandan Genocide. In addition, he said, they had many mutual friends and interest in the human rights community.

“All the stars started to align,” he said.

The two male leads of the film, Isaac and Bale, regularly receive rave reviews in movies, and in the case of Bale, Academy Award nominations.

“Not only were our lead actors excited to work on the film, but they were deeply committed to be part of a project like this, which has significant potential for social impact,” Esrailian said. “People have wondered or said why not have Armenians in the movie [for the male leads] but we found the best actors we could for each role.”

Actress Angela Sarafyan, a successful Armenia-born actress, is also cast in the movie in a major role.

The film will have a wide release in April, meaning that it will play on about 2,000 screens around the US. The international distribution plans have not yet been announced.

An advisor to the producers of “The Promise” was the writer/director of the other major film on the Armenian Genocide, “Ararat,” Atom Egoyan.

“Atom Egoyan is a good friend and he came to our Toronto [Film Festival] premier and loved the film.”

The film, famously, received online bashing from Azeri and Turkish groups after it debuted at the Toronto Film Festival. About 80,000 reviews of the film, mostly negative, were posted in the wake of its initial showings. The sheer number of those negative reviews was enough to indicate that they were clearly not based on viewing the film, which has only been shown in Toronto.

“It was well-planned, but that is not surprising. There has always been denial after genocide and the modern day denialist kind of trolls the Internet,” he said. “It is an attempt to throw up a smokescreen and distract from the truth.”

“I think Atom did something that was never done before. We owe him a huge debt of thanks,” Esrailian said.

“Ararat,” he said, took place in modern times, using the device of a film-within-a-film to show scenes from the Armenian Genocide.

“It was an ingenious way to make the way and the subject matter connect with people who lived in 2002,” when the film was released.

“The Promise,” of course, is “set in a historical time.” It was shot in Spain, Portugal and Malta.

Esrailian acknowledged the huge amount of support and goodwill generated in the community over the film.

“The outpouring of support has been unbelievable. One woman came up to me in Toronto in tears after a screening and said her ancestors now have a voice and can rest in peace. It makes you so much more resilient to face the naysayers.”

Esrailian recalled that actor Oscar Isaac said in Toronto, “when the truth is on your side, there is no controversy.”

“We are hopefully going to inspire people to help those in need in the world today” he said.

Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwut1DUXaZc to see a trailer for “The Promise.”