Bloedbroeders

Musical actor Ara Halici knows little about his own Armenian history, but when he is approached by Sinan Can, a researching journalist, to take a trip together and unravel the mystery of the Armenian Genocide, he accepts the challenge. The purpose is reconciliation between Turks and Armenians. A friendship blossoms between the two men but soon shows a few cracks. When Ara absorbs the horrible stories he gets more and more emotional, while Sinan starts hesitating whether it all really happened.

In Istanbul the search begins for Ara's family history, but soon seems to be a dead end. The few Armenians living in Istanbul are in constant fear. Turks learn at an early age to consider Armenians as traitors, which has consequences for the society. Sinan researches why Turks started hating Armenians. It appears the Armenians were being heavily oppressed in the 19th century and were looking for support in the west. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed the Armenians were seen as a threat and the need to create a new Turkey originated, solely for the Turks.

Sinan and Ara travel to Kayseri in the middle of Turkey. From that region does Ara's family originate. But as of today all the Armenians homes and neighborhoods have been destroyed and deserted. Churches have been broken down and stripped from their crosses. Nonetheless Ara finds trails of his family and their history. The locals know not better than Armenians having left on their own accord. They see the 1915 bloodbaths as an event Armenians themselves have started. But down the road Sinan and Ara discover how during the First World War Armenians were unlawfully accused of failed battles and a plan was approved to deport them all to the desert.

Ara finds the grandchildren of the Turkish farmer that saved his great grandmother and grandfather from a certain death. He is received there with love like a lost son.Afterwards they travel to Erzincan where Sinan's roots lie. His great grandfather was a bellicose landlord who ended up possessing a lot of Armenian land. Sinan will eventually inherit this land en wants to know whether his family has blood on their hands. He discovers that in the region where his parents come from ten thousands of Armenians where systematically slaughtered on the land and thrown in the Euphrates. This brings him into a crisis. His own history has lost its innocence.

Everywhere they go Armenian buildings have been destroyed and the remaining Armenians were forced to convert to Islam. The grim realm drives Sinan and Ara apart. Sinan feels the desire for material evidence that there was indeed a genocide committed. For Ara, this desire only distracts him from reconciling with his Armenian background. For this reason they both go their own way. Ara travels alongside the Syrian border to the only Armenian village in Turkey. He visits Mount Ararat and goes to Ani, the ruins of the former capital of the Armenian Empire.Sinan travels back to Istanbul and goes to Ankara. Over there he gathers evidence and confronts people. And if he finally finds what he's looking for he travels to Kars, in the far east of Turkey to meet Ara again and prepare for the last part of their journey: Armenia.

Exuberant and filled with optimism Sinan and Ara travel to Yerevan, Armenia. Could Sinan, by recognizing the genocide, cause a chain reaction of forgiveness ? It is the evening before the 24th of April, the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. Countless of youthful Armenian diaspora gather in Yerevan for this event. The genocide lives in everyone's heart, and with it the pain of previous generations. Through 100 years of denial, the trauma of the Armenian people has never been able to heal. Sinan notices the Turkish excuses cause paranoid reactions. When he finally meets a 105 year old survivor of the genocide and asks him for forgiveness, his missions threatens to fail completely.