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THE WATER DIVINER: FANTASY NOT HISTORY
Neos Kosmos - Hellenic Perspective
Jan 14 2015
The premise of an Australian wandering around western Anatolia in
1920-21 is itself incredulous
DR PANAYIOTIS DIAMANTIS
'Satan's army: the dark side of The Water Diviner', 'Bizarre',
'Disgusting', 'Lies' and 'Disgraceful'. These are some of the responses
to the depiction of Hellenes in The Water Diviner, screenplay and novel
by Andrew Anastasios and associates. Anastasios and his co-writers
have done serious disservice to both Kleio, Muse of History, and
to Hellenism.
A daughter of Zeus, Këåßù may translate as 'to recount', 'to make
famous', or 'to celebrate'. Anastasios' misconstructions and omissions
result in the film and its accompanying novel presenting the indigenous
Hellenes of Anatolia as 'Satan's army', as barbarous invaders. In
its drive to create an anti-war message, The Water Diviner ends up as
fantastic propaganda where victims become perpetrators and perpetrators
become victims.
In The Water Diviner, Anastasios omits that Hellenes, Armenians
and Assyrians are the indigenous peoples of Anatolia, omits that
Armenians lived in the region where most of the action in the film and
the novel takes place, depicts the indigenous Hellenes of Anatolia
so disparagingly even the Turkish newspaper Zaman decries it, and
much more.
In a recent interview, Russell Crowe claimed that "after 100 years,
it's time to expand that mythology", Australia "should be mature enough
as a nation to take into account the story that the other blokes have
to tell". Fair enough. This should include the story of the indigenous
peoples of Anatolia who were being subjected to genocide at the time
when the film is set, in the land where the film's action unfolds.
The first step in setting right a litany of wrongs is a disclaimer
at the beginning of each screening of this film acknowledging that
Hellenes, Armenians and Assyrians are the indigenous peoples of
Anatolia and that the film may offend them and their descendants.
History and fantasy
The Water Diviner is about a man who travels to eastern Thrace and
Anatolia after the Battle of Gallipoli to try to find his three missing
sons. The premise of an Australian wandering around western Anatolia
in 1920-21 is itself incredulous. Australian World War One veteran
Major George Devine Treloar told the Sydney Morning Herald in May
1927 that "Turkey was a bad place for foreigners at the present time".
The story deals (in part) with the Anzac prisoners-of-war of the
Ottoman Empire in World War One. The climax of the story takes
place in a medieval Orthodox church in the city of Akroinos (modern
Afyonkarahisar).
Anzac and other Allied POWs (especially Indians) died in captivity by
the thousand. Anzac POWs recorded how Armenian and Hellenic churches
and houses across Anatolia were their prison camps. Akroinos' main
prisoner-of-war camps were the massive Armenian church and its
neighbourhood of formerly Armenian-owned houses.
The Water Diviner paints indigenous Anatolian Hellenes as barbaric
invaders, at one point being labelled 'Satan's army' by one character.
Surviving Anzac prisoners recorded how Hellenes assisted in their
survival - and in some cases, their escape.
Crowe and his writers are derided by Guy Walters of The Telegraph
(London), Barry John Clark, president of the New Zealand Veterans
Association, and Major General David McLachlan, president of the
Victorian RSL, amongst others, for holding positions "utterly without
foundation".
In Major General McLachlan's words, "Russ must have been asleep
during that lesson at school", referring to the inclusion of the
Turkish view of Gallipoli in this country's schools and universities.
The danger of this and other similar films that claim to be 'inspired
by actual events' is that because Crowe is a famous actor, his words
are taken as being authoritative. His film may be treated as actual
history. As educators and as consumers, we should take this problem
seriously.
As demonstrated by Peter Weir's Gallipoli (1980) - a favourite of
secondary school teachers - the problem with the glib Anastasios-Crowe
approach is that audiences develop completely skewed, often false,
historical knowledge; implanting false memories in public history.
As seen with the explosion of 'Anzackery' over the last generation,
this collective false memory has major effects on our understanding
of our own past, how we explain our past to ourselves, how we regard
ourselves, and how we act as a national collective. The 1934 Mustafa
Kemal 'statement' about mothers and sons exemplifies this point. As
illustrated by Professor Peter Stanley, there is no evidence Mustafa
Kemal ever addressed a message to grieving Australian mothers. Yet
the 'statement' is omnipresent in political and historical writing
around Anzac.
Similarly, Anastasios and Crowe 'expand' the very mythologies they
are seeking to undermine. As Crowe stated: "You know, because we did
invade a sovereign nation that we'd never had an angry word with ...
we shouldn't celebrate the parts of that mythology that shouldn't
be celebrated."
The Ottoman Empire launched a campaign of destruction against its
indigenous peoples from January 1914, beginning with violent expulsions
of Hellenes from the very region (the Gallipoli Peninsula) where so
many Anzacs and other allies fell only months later.
The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers and invaded British Egypt
and the Russian Caucasus in 1914. On New Year's Day 1915, two Afghan
cameleers flew the Ottoman banner in their assault on a trainload of
picnickers outside Broken Hill, NSW.
In seeking to promote an anti-war message at a time when extreme
ideologies are wreaking havoc, Anastasios and Crowe are engaging in
a dangerous revisionism of historical events. In some aspects, this
constitutes genocide denial by omission. While Anastasios may claim
'artistic licence', that this film and its novel are entertainment,
historical events should not be used as the basis of works that
distort them. This is not the History Kleio personifies.
Dr Panayiotis Diamadis lectures in Genocide Studies at the University
of Technology, Sydney.
http://neoskosmos.com/news/en/The-Water-Diviner-fantasy-not-history#.VLWljiMawEw.facebook
From: Baghdasarian
Neos Kosmos - Hellenic Perspective
Jan 14 2015
The premise of an Australian wandering around western Anatolia in
1920-21 is itself incredulous
DR PANAYIOTIS DIAMANTIS
'Satan's army: the dark side of The Water Diviner', 'Bizarre',
'Disgusting', 'Lies' and 'Disgraceful'. These are some of the responses
to the depiction of Hellenes in The Water Diviner, screenplay and novel
by Andrew Anastasios and associates. Anastasios and his co-writers
have done serious disservice to both Kleio, Muse of History, and
to Hellenism.
A daughter of Zeus, Këåßù may translate as 'to recount', 'to make
famous', or 'to celebrate'. Anastasios' misconstructions and omissions
result in the film and its accompanying novel presenting the indigenous
Hellenes of Anatolia as 'Satan's army', as barbarous invaders. In
its drive to create an anti-war message, The Water Diviner ends up as
fantastic propaganda where victims become perpetrators and perpetrators
become victims.
In The Water Diviner, Anastasios omits that Hellenes, Armenians
and Assyrians are the indigenous peoples of Anatolia, omits that
Armenians lived in the region where most of the action in the film and
the novel takes place, depicts the indigenous Hellenes of Anatolia
so disparagingly even the Turkish newspaper Zaman decries it, and
much more.
In a recent interview, Russell Crowe claimed that "after 100 years,
it's time to expand that mythology", Australia "should be mature enough
as a nation to take into account the story that the other blokes have
to tell". Fair enough. This should include the story of the indigenous
peoples of Anatolia who were being subjected to genocide at the time
when the film is set, in the land where the film's action unfolds.
The first step in setting right a litany of wrongs is a disclaimer
at the beginning of each screening of this film acknowledging that
Hellenes, Armenians and Assyrians are the indigenous peoples of
Anatolia and that the film may offend them and their descendants.
History and fantasy
The Water Diviner is about a man who travels to eastern Thrace and
Anatolia after the Battle of Gallipoli to try to find his three missing
sons. The premise of an Australian wandering around western Anatolia
in 1920-21 is itself incredulous. Australian World War One veteran
Major George Devine Treloar told the Sydney Morning Herald in May
1927 that "Turkey was a bad place for foreigners at the present time".
The story deals (in part) with the Anzac prisoners-of-war of the
Ottoman Empire in World War One. The climax of the story takes
place in a medieval Orthodox church in the city of Akroinos (modern
Afyonkarahisar).
Anzac and other Allied POWs (especially Indians) died in captivity by
the thousand. Anzac POWs recorded how Armenian and Hellenic churches
and houses across Anatolia were their prison camps. Akroinos' main
prisoner-of-war camps were the massive Armenian church and its
neighbourhood of formerly Armenian-owned houses.
The Water Diviner paints indigenous Anatolian Hellenes as barbaric
invaders, at one point being labelled 'Satan's army' by one character.
Surviving Anzac prisoners recorded how Hellenes assisted in their
survival - and in some cases, their escape.
Crowe and his writers are derided by Guy Walters of The Telegraph
(London), Barry John Clark, president of the New Zealand Veterans
Association, and Major General David McLachlan, president of the
Victorian RSL, amongst others, for holding positions "utterly without
foundation".
In Major General McLachlan's words, "Russ must have been asleep
during that lesson at school", referring to the inclusion of the
Turkish view of Gallipoli in this country's schools and universities.
The danger of this and other similar films that claim to be 'inspired
by actual events' is that because Crowe is a famous actor, his words
are taken as being authoritative. His film may be treated as actual
history. As educators and as consumers, we should take this problem
seriously.
As demonstrated by Peter Weir's Gallipoli (1980) - a favourite of
secondary school teachers - the problem with the glib Anastasios-Crowe
approach is that audiences develop completely skewed, often false,
historical knowledge; implanting false memories in public history.
As seen with the explosion of 'Anzackery' over the last generation,
this collective false memory has major effects on our understanding
of our own past, how we explain our past to ourselves, how we regard
ourselves, and how we act as a national collective. The 1934 Mustafa
Kemal 'statement' about mothers and sons exemplifies this point. As
illustrated by Professor Peter Stanley, there is no evidence Mustafa
Kemal ever addressed a message to grieving Australian mothers. Yet
the 'statement' is omnipresent in political and historical writing
around Anzac.
Similarly, Anastasios and Crowe 'expand' the very mythologies they
are seeking to undermine. As Crowe stated: "You know, because we did
invade a sovereign nation that we'd never had an angry word with ...
we shouldn't celebrate the parts of that mythology that shouldn't
be celebrated."
The Ottoman Empire launched a campaign of destruction against its
indigenous peoples from January 1914, beginning with violent expulsions
of Hellenes from the very region (the Gallipoli Peninsula) where so
many Anzacs and other allies fell only months later.
The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers and invaded British Egypt
and the Russian Caucasus in 1914. On New Year's Day 1915, two Afghan
cameleers flew the Ottoman banner in their assault on a trainload of
picnickers outside Broken Hill, NSW.
In seeking to promote an anti-war message at a time when extreme
ideologies are wreaking havoc, Anastasios and Crowe are engaging in
a dangerous revisionism of historical events. In some aspects, this
constitutes genocide denial by omission. While Anastasios may claim
'artistic licence', that this film and its novel are entertainment,
historical events should not be used as the basis of works that
distort them. This is not the History Kleio personifies.
Dr Panayiotis Diamadis lectures in Genocide Studies at the University
of Technology, Sydney.
http://neoskosmos.com/news/en/The-Water-Diviner-fantasy-not-history#.VLWljiMawEw.facebook
From: Baghdasarian