Mémoire arménienne

The third and last part of a film series on the Armenian diaspora in France, made using archives and testimonies collected by the CRDA ten or so years ago. The film focuses on how the survivors of the genocide have become integrated into French society. After difficult beginnings the Armenian exiles settled down in Marseilles and along the Rhone valley, where they quickly found work in a country lacking labour after the heavy losses incurred by war. Later, as the Armenians grouped together, real communities came into being with their associations, churches and business activities. Whereas some Armenians finally returned to soviet Armenia, most of them became naturalized French in 1947. Yet the feeling of security and final peacefulness, in later life, mingles with the memories of a language and colourfulness which are disappearing for ever. So the community remains closely knit, bound by the feeling that they all belong to an indelible collective destiny.