It will not be the last.

So I wanted to ask what this means to you and what drew you to this film?

Im Armenian, and my great-grandparents were genocide survivors, so its in my DNA, the story.

It would have been easier to be honest with you to tell it like a straightforward genocide story.

Some people have said, Why didnt you do that instead of having a love story?

So its just been a true honor.

I view it that way, and its humbling.

And other potential geopolitical partners have had to basically kowtow to the pressure.

So the State Department got involved on more than one occasion in the United States, basically pressuring studios.

And this includes the MGM attempt?

In fact, we have a documentary coming out next week at Tribeca calledIntent to Destroyon April 25.

I believe I heard most of the proceeds from this film will be going to charity.

Ive rarely heard that happen with a narrative production.

Its never happened, thats why.

Because theres a huge amount from schools and educators around the country.

I heard the first person to sign on was Christian.

How important was it to get the awareness of these actors?

We wrapped the film in 2015, and here we are and were in constant touch.

It means a lot to me, because theyre sincere people.

[Laughs]

You also bring up a point about it being very evocative of our times.

You see the vilification of the press, the scapegoating of minorities, the saber-rattling.

After making this movie, do you look around the modern world and just shudder a little bit?

Its scary, actually.

The reality is much more relevant now than when we first started the production.

We started working on this, Mr. Kerkorian asked me to start working on this, in 2010.

And since 2010 to now, youve seen so many changes in the world.

Whats happened with the demise of Turkey and the treatment of immigrants and refugees, and the crisis.

Its one of the largest humanitarian crises of modern times, whats happening to these refugees.

You know, Turkey has the most jailed journalists in the world right now.

Amnesty International and other human rights organizations are frequently reporting on that.

Unfortunately, thats what happened to the Armenians, they were loyal citizens of the empire for centuries.

Or worse: killing them along the way.

That just doesnt hold water.

Theyre not even people.

Theyre not even people.

When you see what happened in Rwanda, people were referring to others as cockroaches.

When somebody is a cockroach, you dont think twice about exterminating them, and thats really the sadness.

How can you treat one another to make the world better?

The movie had an old school, classical approach.

The filmmaker I kept thinking of was David Lean.

Well first of all, I appreciate you saying that.

Like the throwbacks to the cinema, Doctor ZhivagoandCasablanca.

LikeCasablanca, you have Nazi Germany, inDoctor Zhivago, you have the Russian Revolution.

And these of the bang out of movies that people dont really make.

And so he grew up with these kind of memorable films.

People want to go to a movie theater and basically lose themselves.

And also the Armenian people?

Armenians are just not about the genocide.

One of our actors was called into the embassy in his country and given propaganda.

We had this whole attack on IMDb with trolls trying to down-vote the movie before its even come out.

We have over 120,000 votes now of a film that hasnt even come out into the theaters.

AndHollywood Reporterwrote on it where people were being told to go to the website and vote down the movie.

I would say all of these things together make the attempts to suppress and the denial attempts unsuccessful.

Its already out there, so weve already won.

The Promiseis in theaters now.