Arsinée Khanjian, a famous Canadian actress, and Günther, a representative of the German state theatre, meet for an interview on the stage of the Maxim Gorki Theatre. The reason for their conversation is a donation: Arsinée wants to donate historical costumes from Ararat, a film made by her husband Atom Egoyan. These costumes serve as artefacts to commemorate the Armenian Genocide in 1915. But then the conversation takes an unexpected turn: Günther questions Arsinée’s motivations. Why this donation at this particular moment? In the year 2023, more than a century after the genocide, history repeated itself: In Artsakh more than a hundred thousand Armenians were expelled. The world looked the other way once again. Does the donation signify a silent accusation of the world’s inaction?
In the context of this suffering and Günther’s critical questions, Arsinée begins to have doubts. Did her many years of artistic and activist commitment to the recognition of the Armenian genocide have any meaning at all? In the end the showdown between Günther and Arsinée raises the question of what art can and should do and if it – despite all the hopelessness – can still change the world, bit by bit.
In addition to their successful films, which have been screened at festivals including Cannes, the Berlinale and Venice, the duo Egoyan-Khanjianis are returning to making works for the theatre at the Gorki. Following Auction of Souls (2015), Donation takes to the mainstage ten years later.
