Watch Aurora's Sunrise in London

The Armenian Institute is excited to partner with Bertha DocHouse to promote new screenings of Aurora’s Sunrise.

The true story of how a fourteen-year-old girl escaped the slaughter of the Armenian genocide and embarked upon an odyssey that took her to the heights of Hollywood stardom.

In 1919, the silent Hollywood film Auction of Souls told the story of a teenage girl’s experience through the horror of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

Aurora Mardiganian played herself in the blockbuster film of her life, which brought the plight of the Armenians to the wider world. All copies of Auction of Souls were believed to be lost, until 1994 when 18 minutes of film were rediscovered, just a few months after Aurora’s death, aged 93.

Aurora’s Sunrise revives Aurora’s story through a blend of evocative animation, her own recollections and the 18 minutes of surviving footage from her lost silent epic.

It vividly recalls an often-ignored 20th Century genocide, telling the tale of how one girl escaped, and then relived her life’s greatest pain to save her people.