Atom Egoyan: biography and films

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The well-known Canadian director Atom Egoyan became the winner of the Cannes Film Festival three times. He impressed the most authoritative jury with a variety of topics that are touched upon in his paintings, and professional techniques. Drama, thriller, tragedy and even detective stories - in all these genres, Atom Egoyan has already managed to prove himself with equal success. The director's biography is no less interesting and deserves attention as an example of a successful career of an emigrant who achieved success with talent and hard work.

Childhood and youth

Atom Egoyan was born in the Egyptian capital in 1960 to an Armenian family. When the son was three years old, his parents went to Canada in search of a better life. At first, they lived on income from a small furniture store, which Egoyan Sr. could hardly open. Money was constantly lacking, so he decided to send Atom's grandmother to a nursing home, where she would be provided with medical care. According to the director, hewas upset that for a while he even refused to speak Armenian. By the way, this theme formed the basis of one of Egoyan's first films - the film "Family Viewing", the hero of which, 17-year-old Van from an Armenian-Canadian family, not only visits his grandmother, as the young Atom did, but also takes her home.

But this was after, and before that, he and his sister were sent to study in British Columbia, and upon returning to Toronto, Egoyan entered and graduated from the local university in two speci alties at once: “Playing the classical guitar” and “International relations”.

Movie debut

Even while studying at the University of Toronto, Atom Egoyan (see photo above) became interested in writing plays. There he made his first short film, which was shown as part of the Canadian Festival of Student Creativity. The successful debut prompted the creation of another film in the last year of the university - "Open House", which was shown on local television.

Beginning of film career

In 1984, with the money received from the sale of the rights to the film "Open House", the young director made his first feature film "Next of Kin". It told the story of a young man who leaves his quarreling Protestant parents and finds shelter in an Armenian immigrant family, where he introduces himself as a distant relative. The painting was a success and received the Golden Ducat prize in Mannheim. In addition, she became the debut for Atom's wife, Canadian actress of Armenian origin Arsine Khanjyan, who laterstarred in many films of her husband.

Atom Egoyan: filmography

The director's second feature film Family View was presented at twenty festivals and received many prizes. Egoyan's innovative techniques, which he showed during the filming of this film, attracted the attention of specialists to him, made him talk about the birth of a new star in Canadian cinema. This was followed by a number of films, many of which were quite successful and received prizes at famous film screenings. In particular, one can note such films by Egoyan as "Insurance Agent", "Exotic", "Glorious Future" and others. Moreover, the last film won the Grand Prix at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar in 1997.

Ararat

Atom Egoyan, whose films are known all over the world, could not get around the topic of the Armenian genocide. He invited Charles Aznavour to one of the main roles in his film "Ararat". The great chansonnier played a director making a film about the famous American artist of Armenian origin Arshile Gorky, who miraculously escaped the massacre and lived all his life with memories of the terrible crimes of the Young Turks. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival out of competition and won the "Canadian Oscar" (Gini Award) as the best film of 2003. In addition, Egoyan was awarded the Writers Guild of Canada Award for his screenplay. At the same time, Turkey, despite the fact that at the moment the fact of the Armenian genocide at the beginning of the 20th century is recognized by the Pope, the European Parliament and such countries as Russia, Germany,France and many others continue to deny it, protesting and criticizing the painting.

Recent works

Atom Egoyan has made some more interesting films over the past 10 years. Among them:

• Citadel.
• "Love".
• Chloe.
• "The Invisible World".
• "Devil's Knot".
• "Captive".
• Remember.

Chloe, starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried, Nina Dobrev and Max Thieriot, was of great interest to the audience.

Last year, director Atom Egoyan presented his film “Remember” to the audience. She received two prizes at the Calgary Film Festival and nominations in other well-known film forums. The film keeps the viewer in suspense until the last minute and has an unexpected ending. It tells the story of old people who survived a concentration camp during World War II, who met in a nursing home. They learn that the most cruel of their tormentors, after the defeat of the Nazis, moved to North America and lives under the name Rudy Kurlander. One of the old men - Zev - decides to find him and take revenge. The problem is that there are four people with that name living in the States and Canada. So an elderly man begins to visit the homes of possible criminals, learning the details of their lives, until he finally finds his victim-executioner. And then the imaginary Rudy Kurlander accuses Zev of being a former Nazi himself, trying to escape from justice.

Now youknow who Atom Egoyan is. The films of this director are so diverse in content and style that among them everyone can find one that will arouse his interest.