“A new, big-budget documentary on the life of diaspora Armenians will debut this weekend on the state-run Turkish Radio and Television, or TRT, which provided funding for the film,” Hurriyet Daily News reports.

“Shot over a year in Armenian communities in Buenos Aires and in Valance, France, “Dostluğu Hatırlamak” (Remembering Friendship) reflects director Sevinc Yesiltas’s desire to tell a different story about Armenians,” the daily reads.

“Before making the film, I watched all documentaries featuring the historical problems in the TRT archive. I wanted my production to tell the human story, not the historical one,” Yesiltas said.

“In order to talk about historical problems, I need to be a historian and I am not. I wanted to tell the story of ordinary people, outside of politics,” she said.

“The wife of a priest the director met in Valance was from the Southeast Anatolian province of Sanliurfa, Yesiltas said. “They wanted to give me a family heirloom needlepoint as a gift. I told them I couldn’t accept it but they insisted. They held me and cried,” she said.

“During the filming process, Yesiltas said, she realized during how much Turks and Armenians resembled one another,” the daily says.