Special Screening of ‘Grandma’s Tattoos’ at Watertown Middle School

WATERTOWN, Mass.—On Wed., Dec. 14, the Armenian Club of Watertown High School, the ARF Boston “Sardarabad” Gomideh, the Armenian International Women’s Association (AIWA), and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) will present Suzanne Khardalian’s documentary Grandma’s Tattoos at the Watertown Middle School Auditorium. Khardalian will be present the evening of the screening and will speak and engage in a question-and-answer session following the film.

In 1919, just after the end of World War I, Allied forces reclaimed 90,819 Armenian young girls and children who, during the war years, were forced to become prostitutes to survive, or had given birth to children after forced or arranged marriages or rape. Many of these women were tattooed as a sign that they belonged to an abductor. European and American missionaries organized help and saved thousands of refugees who were later scattered all over the world to places like Beirut, Marseilles, and Fresno.

Grandma’s Tattoos is a personal film about what happened to many Armenian women during and after the genocide. It is a ghost story—with the ghosts of the tattooed women haunting us—and a mystery film, where many taboos are broken. As no one wants to tell the real and whole story, and in order to bring the pieces of the puzzle together, the director makes us move between different times and space, from today’s Sweden to Khardalian’s childhood in Beirut.

“As a child I thought these were devilish signs that came from a dark world. They stirred fear in me. What were these tattoos? Who had done them, and why? But the tattoos on grandma’s hands and face were a taboo. They never spoke about it,” explains Khardalian.

Grandma’s Tattoos is a journey into the secrets of the family. Eventually, the secret behind Grandma Khanoum’s blue marks are revealed.

Suzanne Khardalian is an independent filmmaker and writer. She studied journalism in Beirut and Paris and worked as a journalist in Paris until 1985, when she started to work on films. She holds a master’s degree in international law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and contributes articles to different journals. She has directed more than 20 films that have been shown both in Europe and the U.S. They include Back to Ararat (1988), Unsafe Ground (1993), The Lion from Gaza (1996), Her Armenian Prince (1997), From Opium to Chrysanthemums (2000), Where Lies My Victory (2002), I Hate Dogs (2005), Bullshit (2006), and Young Freud in Gaza (2009).

The film screening begins promptly at 7 p.m., at the Watertown Middle School Auditorium, 68 Waverley Ave. in Watertown. Admission to the event is free and open to the public. Grandma’s Tattoos runs for 56 minutes. It contains adult themes and may not be appropriate for children under age 13. For more information, call Siran Tamakian at (781) 724-7608 or e-mail hq@naasr.org or aiwainc@aol.com.