Marc Hairapetian: A True Devotee of Film

I’m lucky in answering this question! Although it’s a stylish black and white erotic thriller with horror elements, I didn’t have any nudity or erotic scenes. I basically played myself here, a host who is on a talk show discussing a horrific series of snuff murders with a detective. The scantily clad leading actress Anna Hausburg, who falls into the clutches of the cruel psychopathic killer a little later, has switched on her television and watches us spellbound and distraught.

Marc, your father was the founder of the Armenian Cultural Association in Frankfurt am Main. Please tell us about him.

I owe a lot to my father, Ardavas Hairapetian (who let everyone call him Vasig) especially his love for film, music, literature, photography and painting. Although he was actually an engineer, he painted a lot, both in the Expressionist and Impressionist styles. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Vincent van Gogh were his role models. But he also made beautiful icons, all of which are on the walls of my German mother Mago’s living room in Hanover. He also taught me to take photos. He bequeathed his analogue Leica R3 to me. When he came to Germany from Iran in the mid-1960s, in 1968 he became a co-founder of the Armenian Cultural Association (Armenischer KulturVerein) in Frankfurt am Main, my hometown. He was very handsome and could have become an actor himself. He looked like a mix of Omar Sharif, George Clooney and Joachim Fuchsberger. But he preferred to play chess and won a number of titles in Iran. My father was more than an idealist: he was an altruist. The well-being of others was always more important to him than his own. At the time of the Islamic Revolution, he helped many friends and their friends to settle abroad. He was generous, never lending money but giving it away. A deep friendship connected him with Aram Khachaturian, to whom he showed Germany in the 1970s, where they partied together from time to time at Frankfurt nightclubs. Smoking was his only vice: he died of lung cancer in 2006 at the age of 65. When I was a member of the jury at the Yerevan International Film Festival in 2013 and was able to award the FIPRESCI Prize to an Iranian film in the sold-out opera in the presence of Charles Aznavour, I told on stage about my father and his friendship with Aram Khachaturian. There was applause and standing ovations. That was the greatest moment of my life in memory of my beloved father.

We met in 2013 and 2018 during your visits to Armenia. Even without knowing the language, it was obvious you were feeling yourself in your own country. Although you have written an article about your first visit, it will be great if you share about your trips one more time.

I have already mentioned the wonderful award ceremony for the tenth anniversary of Golden Apricot, which was also broadcast live on Armenian television. I felt at home when I first came to Yerevan in the hot summer of 2013! At the Grand Hotel, in that time called the Royal Tulip, I was amazed that I could talk to the young ladies at reception about the films and actors of the 1960s and 1970s. General education and cultural knowledge are very high in Armenia. And that fills me with pride. I will also never forget that I got to know the greatest Armenian of all, our Charles Aznavour, personally on the very first day. He was staying in the same hotel as me and was introduced to me by my good friend Atom Egoyan. A day later, Charles and I did an interview for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and my own culture magazine, Spirit – A Smile in the Storm after a reception at his own museum. Our acquaintance became so strong that almost a year later he invited my Vietnamese girlfriend and me to celebrate his 90th birthday after his concert in Berlin!

When I attended  a concert in Yerevan in the Khachaturian house, I cried. There were also tears of joy! The “Yerevan Nights” were wonderful and how we all — filmmakers, journalists, organizers, tourists and beautiful Armenian girls — celebrated together and danced to live music. Three years later, at the Marc Cain Fashion Show, where I as a guest of honor met you again, dear Artsvi, we also celebrated together again in a club and it was said: dance, dance, dance until dawn! Armenian hospitality and food — we also went to the famous “Dolmama” restaurant — are really unique. And the Armenian women — next to the Vietnamese — are the most beautiful in the world! Dear organizers of Golden Apricot, if you are reading this, you must know: your international film festival is one of the best ever and I would be honored to be one of your jury members again because – to quote my compatriot William Saroyan: my heart is always in the highlands of Hayastan!

Thanks, Marc! I wish your next visit to Armenia be connected with some interesting cultural project!

Thank you, Artsvi, for your interest in my life and work! Now that covid is almost defeated, I hope to visit you and my other Armenian friends again soon!