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Arts on Main set for fun

THERE is certainly a hive of artistic activity now at the new arts venue in Johannesburg's Arts on Main.

THERE is certainly a hive of artistic activity now at the new arts venue in Johannesburg's Arts on Main.

This week the spotlight is on Right on the Rim Project Saloon within the Arts on Main complex, one of the art spaces at the complex, which is increasingly making a reputation for putting up cutting-edge and progressive works of arts.

Hosting film screenings, theatre shows and visual art exhibitions, the hive of activity, starts today and winds up on Sunday.

Today a historical but tragic movie, TheLark Farm, takes a close look at Turkey's most sensitive taboo, the 1915 genocide against the Armenians (Courtesy the Italian Cultural Institute).

As adapted from the novels by Antonia Arslan and co-directed by legendary Italian brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, The Lark Farm marks one of the few international features to tackle the Armenian genocide head-on.

The story (with its thematic parallels, in the early scenes, to De Sica's 1970 Garden of the Finzi-Continis) concerns the Avakian clan.

An Armenian family living an affluent life and periodically shuttling back and forth between their two comfortable homes. The Avakians feel convinced that the rising tide of Turkish hostility on the horizon means little to them and will scarcely affect them.

Indeed, the Avakians ignore the warning signs and set about preparing for a family reunion with the impending visit of two well-to-do sons - landowner Aram, who lives in Turkey, and Assadour, a physician living in Venice.

Lo and behold, their illusions come crashing down when a Turkish military regiment crops up at the house, kill every male member of the family and forces the rest into the Syrian desert, where they will be left to rot.

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