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Movies like Ararat

Key Features:
Genocide, Historical drama, Film within a film, Memory, Trauma, Identity, Interrogation, Historical revisionism, Cultural identity, Political intrigue
Tone:
serious, dramatic
Target Audience:
History buffs, Viewers interested in political dramas, Those seeking thought-provoking films, Armenian diaspora
Emotional Arc:
Intrigue → Grief → Reflection

Ararat

2002-05-20
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Interrogated by a customs officer, a young man recounts how his life was changed during the making of a film about the Armenian genocide.

Genres
Drama, War, History
Cast
Simon Abkarian, Charles Aznavour, Christopher Plummer, Arsinée Khanjian, David Alpay, Marie-Josée Croze, Elias Koteas, Brent Carver, Max Morrow, Christie MacFadyen
Crew
Atom Egoyan, Atom Egoyan
Rating
6.1(93 votes)
AraratArarat
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The Cut
The Cut(2014)
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In 1915 a man survives the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, but loses his family, speech and faith. One night he learns that his twin daughters may be alive, and goes on a quest to find them.



The Earthquake
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After the devastating Spitak earthquake of December 7th, Konstantin Berezhnoy, a 50-year-old Russian, and Robert Melkonyan, a 28-year-old Armenian, work together to rescue the desperate survivors.



Propaganda
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Based on a true story set in 1948, customs officer Mehti is faced with the duty of formally setting up the border between Turkey and Syria, dividing his hometown. He is unaware of the pain that will eminently unfold, as families, languages, cultures and lovers are both ripped apart and clash head on in a village once united.



Remember
Remember(2015)
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With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.



Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

A group of men lead a search for a victim of a murder to whom a suspect named Kenan and his mentally challenged brother confessed. However, the search is proving more difficult than expected as Kenan is fuzzy as to the body's location. As the group continues looking, its members can't help but chat among themselves about everyday life, as the conversations turn more and more profound and existential.



Ulysses' Gaze
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An exiled filmmaker finally returns to his home country where former mysteries and afflictions of his early life come back to haunt him once more.



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This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.



Life, and Nothing More…

After the earthquake of Guilan, a film director and his son travel to the devastated area to search for the actors from the movie the director made there a few years previously. In their search, they see how people who have lost everything in the earthquake still have hope and try to live life to the fullest.



My Grandfather's People

A feature film that tells the story of the director's grandfather who was forced to leave Crete in the 1920s during the Greek-Turkish population exchange.



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Adoration(2009)
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For his French-class assignment, a high school student weaves his family history in a news story involving terrorism, and goes on to invite an Internet audience in on the resulting controversy.



The Promise
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Set during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, a love triangle develops between Mikael, a brilliant medical student, the beautiful and sophisticated artist Ana, and Chris, a renowned American journalist based in Paris.



Mr. Arkadin
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Claiming that he doesn't know his own past, a rich man enlists an ex-con with an odd bit of detective work. Gregory Arkadin says he can't remember anything before the late 1920s, and convict Guy Van Stratten is happy to take the job of exploring his new acquaintance's life story. Guy's research turns up stunning details about his employer's past, and as his work seems linked to untimely deaths, the mystery surrounding Mr. Arkadin deepens.



Butterflies
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Last Year at Marienbad

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Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who has been barred from leaving the country, arrives at a village on the Iran-Turkey border to supervise a film based on a real-life couple seeking passports to Europe being shot in Turkey, but both his stay and the production run into trouble.



Simon Killer
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A recent college graduate flees to Paris after a break-up, where his involvement with a prostitute begins to reveal a potentially dark recent past.



Persian Lessons
7.5

Occupied France, 1942. Gilles is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to Head of Camp Koch, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Through an ingenious trick, Gilles manages to survive by inventing words of "Farsi" every day and teaching them to Koch.



Detainment
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Two ten year-old boys are detained by police under suspicion of abducting and murdering a toddler.



The Color of Pomegranates

The life of the revered 18th-century Armenian poet and musician Sayat-Nova. Portraying events in the life of the artist from childhood up to his death, the movie addresses in particular his relationships with women, including his muse. The production tells Sayat-Nova's dramatic story by using both his poems and largely still camerawork, creating a work hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.



DNA
DNA(2020)
5.9

A woman has a close bond with her beloved Algeriann grandfather, who protected her from a toxic home life as a child; his death triggers a deep identity crisis as tensions between her extended family members escalate, revealing new depths of resentment and bitterness.



At the Bar
6.375

A group of drug-influenced lumpen teenagers from the suburbs of the city descends into the center where they do not belong, where they are excluded. They adopted a brutal method to seize rights that were not granted to them. Unaware of what will happen to them, cheerful and well-to-do university students are helpless in the face of this gun-wielding mob that suddenly raids the bar where they are having fun.



The International
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It is 80's Turkey, local musicians of Adiyaman are hired by the military and trained to welcome one of the forceful generals of coup regime.



Irati
Irati(2023)
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Rendition
Rendition(2007)
6.4

When an Egyptian terrorism suspect "disappears" on a flight from Africa to Washington DC, his American wife and a CIA analyst find themselves caught up in a struggle to secure his release from a secret detention facility somewhere outside the US.



Empire of the Wolves

When the young detective Paul Nerteaux finds the third slashed female corpse of illegal Turkish immigrants, he decides to ask for support to the experienced dark retired detective Jean-Louis Schiffer to chase the serial killer. Together, they infiltrate in the Turkish mafia trying to find the answer to the crimes. Meanwhile, the worker Anna Heymes is being submitted to a brain treatment and has severe headaches and glimpses of memories and visions. When these two parallel events collide, disclose that the Turkish organization "The Wolves" is behind them.



Home Front
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Burgundy, France. Solange's 60th birthday celebrations are violently interrupted by her estranged brother, Bernard. His outburst will reawaken painful memories and reveal untold stories of the Algerian War.



The Confession
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The vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia, knowing he's being watched and followed, is one day arrested and put into solitary confinement.



Boomerang
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Aftermath
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A Pure Formality
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Citizen X
Citizen X(1995)
7.2

Based on the true story of a Russian serial killer who, over many years, claimed victim to over 50 people. His victims were mostly under the age of 17. In what was then a communists state, the police investigations were hampered by bureaucracy, incompetence and those in power. The story is told from the viewpoint of the detective in charge of the case.



I Saw the Sun
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In the southeast region of Turkey, the Kurdish family of Altun lives in a small mountainside village plagued by a 25-year war that makes their daily lives a hellish struggle. As the war intensifies, the family is forced to migrate west to the city of Istanbul.



The I Inside
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When Simon awakens in the hospital after surviving a near-fatal accident, amnesia has erased the last two years from his memory. He learns that his brother was killed, he has married a woman he doesn't remember and he's haunted by strange visions of the woman he loved.



Mortal World
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Mermer family, who has been managing a restaurant called “Anatolian flavors” in Haydarpasa train station for generations, consist of 8 members. Even though this family leads a quiet simple life, they will end up finding themselves in complicated situations. Moreover, this family has been keeping a secret for a long time and it just can’t come out at any cost..



Black Bread
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In the harsh post-war years' Catalan countryside, Andreu, a child that belongs to the losing side, finds the corpses of a man and his son in the forest. The authorities want his father to be made responsible of the deaths, but Andreu tries to help his father by finding out who truly killed them. In this search, Andreu develops a moral consciousness against a world of adults fed by lies. In order to survive, he betrays his own roots and ends up finding out the monster that lives within him.



Camille
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Camille, a young idealistic photojournalist, goes to the Central African Republic to cover the civil war that is brewing up. What she sees there will change her destiny forever.



The Past
The Past(2013)
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After four years apart, Ahmad returns to his wife Marie in Paris in order to progress their divorce. During his brief stay, he cannot help noticing the strained relationship between Marie and her daughter Lucie. As he attempts to improve matters between mother and daughter Ahmad unwittingly lifts the lid on a long buried secret...



A Moment of Innocence
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A semi-autobiographical account of Makhmalbaf's experience as a teenager when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.



Krisha
Krisha(2016)
6.801

When Krisha returns to her estranged family for Thanksgiving dinner, past demons threaten to ruin the festivities.



Endless Love
7.335

Sparks fly when a humble housekeeper crosses paths with a wealthy surgeon, but a devastating truth puts their relationship to the test.



The Survivor
6.813

Harry Haft is a boxer who fought fellow prisoners in the concentration camps to survive. Haunted by the memories and his guilt, he attempts to use high-profile fights against boxing legends like Rocky Marciano as a way to find his first love again.



It Was Just an Accident

Vahid, an Azerbaijani auto mechanic, was once imprisoned by Iranian authorities. During his sentence, he was interrogated blindfolded. One day, a man named Eqbal enters his workshop. His prosthetic leg creaks, and Vahid thinks he recognizes one of his former torturers.



Bliss
Bliss(2007)
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A young woman of about 17 years old, named Meryem (Ozgu Namal), has been raped, and her village's customs call for her to be killed to restore honor and dignity to her family and village. The eldest son of the village leader, Cemal (Murat Han), is ordered to take Meryem to Istanbul and kill her, but at the last minute he cannot complete the task.



Frantz
Frantz(2016)
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In the aftermath of WWI, a young German who grieves the death of her fiancé in France meets a mysterious French man who visits the fiance’s grave to lay flowers.



A Bigger World
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In an attempt to move on from the death of Paul, the love of her life, Korine leaves Paris to undertake a project in Mongolia. But after meeting the shaman, Oyun, her trip takes a different direction. Korine has a rare gift that Oyun intends to unveil. She agrees to initiate herself in the practice of Shamanism, leading her to discover an ancient and forgotten culture, but most importantly herself.



Baskin
Baskin(2015)
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A squad of unsuspecting cops go through a trapdoor to Hell when they stumble upon a Black Mass in an abandoned building.



Adú
Adú(2020)
6.9

In a desperate attempt to reach Europe and crouched before an airstrip in Cameroon, a six-year-old boy and his older sister wait to sneak into the holds of an airplane. Not too far away, an environmental activist contemplates the terrible image of an elephant, dead and fangless. Not only do you have to fight against poaching, but you will also have to meet the problems of your newly arrived daughter from Spain. Thousands of kilometers to the north, in Melilla, a group of civil guards prepare to face the furious crowd of sub-Saharan people who have begun the assault on the fence. Three stories linked by a central theme, in which none of its protagonists know that their destinies are doomed to cross and that their lives will no longer be the same.



Steam: The Turkish Bath

Francesco and Marta run a husband-and-wife design company in Rome. When Francesco's aunt dies in Istanbul he travels there to sort out the hamam Turkish steam bath that she left him. He finds a love and warmth in his relatives' Istanbul home that is missing from his life in Italy.



Behzat Ç.: I Buried You in My Heart

An aggressive police officer tries to solve the mystery behind consecutive murders. While doing so, he must fight against his inner demons.



Scribe
Scribe(2016)
5.921

Two years after a burn-out, Duval is still unemployed. Contacted by an enigmatic businessman, he is offered a simple and well-paid job: transcribing telephone tapping. Duval accepts financially without questioning the purpose of the organization that employs him. Precipitated at the heart of a political plot, he must face the brutal mechanics of the underground world of the secret services.



Cows
Cows(1992)
6.4

A film set in the Spanish side of the Basque Country, beginning in the Carlist war of 1875 and ending during the Spanish Civil war of 1936. The film portrays how one single act of cowardice shapes the life of the next three generations of two families and fuels the intense rivalry which will span the next sixty-one years.



Three Monkeys
6.8

A family battles against the odds to stay together when small lies grow into an extravagant cover-up. In order to avoid hardship and responsibilities that would otherwise be impossible to endure, the family chooses to ignore the truth, not to see, hear or talk about it. But does playing “Three Monkeys” invalidate the truth of its existence?



Lebanon
Lebanon(2009)
6.509

During the First Lebanon War in 1982, a lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town.



Memory
Memory(2023)
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Sylvia is a social worker who leads a simple and structured life: her daughter, her job, her AA meetings. This is blown open when Saul follows her home from their high school reunion. Their surprise encounter will profoundly impact both of them as they open the door to the past.



Les Cowboys
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Drama about a father and son who set out to find their missing daughter/sister with the help of an American headhunter.



The Final Cut
6.1

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The Sacrifice
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Alexander, a journalist, philosopher and retired actor, celebrates a birthday with friends and family when it is announced that nuclear war has begun.



A Secret
A Secret(2007)
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Memory: The Origins of Alien

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Francofonia
6.6

Master filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) transforms a portrait of the world-renowned museum into a magisterial, centuries-spanning reflection on the relation between art, culture and power.



Redacted
Redacted(2007)
5.997

A fictional documentary discusses the effects the Iraq war has had on soldiers and local people through interviews with members of an American military unit, the media, and local Iraqis.



Una
Una(2017)
6.058

When a young woman unexpectedly arrives at an older man's workplace, looking for answers, the secrets of the past threaten to unravel his new life.



Chokehold
Chokehold(2023)
5.605

Evading a scandal, a couple from Istanbul starts over in a town on the Aegean coast — but quickly discover the locals are determined to get rid of them.



About Dry Grasses
7.605

A young art teacher hopes to be transferred to Istanbul after completing his mandatory duty in a remote village school in Anatolia. After accusations of inappropriate contact with a student surface, his hopes of escape fade and he descends further into an existential crisis.



Matador
Matador(1986)
6.67

A conflicted youth confesses to crimes he didn't commit while a man and woman aroused by death become obsessed with each other.



Turkish Delight
6.798

Gifted but hot-headed sculptor Eric has a stormy, erotic, and star-crossed romance with a beautiful young woman named Olga.



Shoah
Shoah(1985)
8.2

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single frame of archival footage. Dividing Holocaust witnesses into three categories – survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators – Lanzmann presents testimonies from survivors of the Chelmno concentration camp, an Auschwitz escapee, and witnesses of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as well as a chilling report of gas chambers from an SS officer at Treblinka.



Through the Olive Trees

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Sometimes in April
7.073

Two brothers are divided by marriage and fate during the 100 horrifying days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.



La Llorona
6.4

Accused of the genocide of Mayan people, retired general Enrique is trapped in his mansion by massive protests. Abandoned by his staff, the indignant old man and his family must face the devastating truth of his actions and the growing sense that a wrathful supernatural force is targeting them for his crimes.



A Self-Made Hero
6.8

Set in France at the end of World War II Albert Dehousse finds out his father wasn't a war hero and his mother is a collaborator.



The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Dr. Steven Murphy is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon who presides over a spotless household with his wife and two children. Lurking at the margins of his idyllic suburban existence is Martin, a fatherless teen who insinuates himself into the doctor's life in gradually unsettling ways.



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Simón(2023)
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Simón, a Venezuelan freedom fighter exiled in Miami, copes not only with trauma, but also deep guilt over a choice he must make: stay in Miami and start a new life, or return home to the losing fight against a tyrannical regime.



Embers
Embers(2015)
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After a global neurological epidemic, those who remain search for meaning and connection in a world without memory. Five interwoven stories each explore a different facet of life without memory in a future that has no past.



Sieranevada
6.74

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7.452

On a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.



A Rough Draft
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Young Muscovite Kirill is a talented designer of computer games. One day, he is completely erased from the memory of everyone he knew and loved. Kirill learns that he has been chosen for an important and mysterious mission: to become a customs officer between parallel worlds, of which there are dozens in the universe. Will Kirill unravel the mystery of these worlds and who controls them? And is our Earth really just an imaginary "draft" -- a parallel world -- which in reality does not exist ...



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Trauma
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A young Romanian woman and a recovering drug addict launch an unlikely investigation after her parents are murdered by a vicious serial killer known as The Headhunter.



Jimmy P.
Jimmy P.(2013)
6.052

At the end of WWII, Jimmy Picard, a Native American Blackfoot who fought in France, suffers from unexplainable symptoms and is admitted to a military hospital. When doctors suspect schizophrenia, an eccentric psychoanalyst takes up the case and starts a conversation with the veteran.



Painless
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While searching for a solution to his serious health condition, David, a renowned neurosurgeon, discovers a sinister secret hidden in the past.



Kamchatka
Kamchatka(2002)
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In 1976, Argentina fell into the hands of a de facto government. Thousands of citizens are persecuted and kidnapped. This is the case of the parents of two children, who, knowing they are wanted, decide to hide.



Adam Resurrected
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After again attempting to commit murder, a Jewish man with a mysterious past and extraordinary intelligence, charisma, and body control returns to an insane asylum, where he makes a startling discovery.



Sputnik
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At the height of the Cold War, a Soviet spacecraft crash lands after a mission gone awry, leaving the commander as its only survivor. After a renowned Russian psychologist is brought in to evaluate the commander’s mental state, it becomes clear that something dangerous may have come back to Earth with him…



Martin (Hache)
7.4

19-year-old Argentine Martin has a nearly fatal drug overdose. After that, his mother sends him to Madrid, where his film director father (also Martin) lives with his new, much younger lover, Alicia, and bisexual actor friend, Dante.



9th Company
6.703

Russian army recruits complete training and take their posting in late 1980s Afghanistan, where the insurgents are slowly gaining the upper hand.



Blue Cave
Blue Cave(2024)
7.058

When Cem finds himself at the brink of losing the love of his life, Alara, he embarks on an expedition to the Blue Cave, Alara's most beloved archeological site, to feel close to her again.



Restless
Restless(2022)
6.1

After going to extremes to cover up an accident, a corrupt cop's life spirals out of control when he starts receiving threats from a mysterious witness.



Kóblic
Kóblic(2016)
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Colonia Helena, Argentina. The mysterious Tomás Kóblic, a former Navy pilot, works as a fumigator while dealing with his dark past and the intrigues of the corrupt police commissioner…



Black Box
Black Box(2020)
6.391

After losing his wife and his memory in a car accident, a single father undergoes an experimental treatment that causes him to question who he really is.



The Net 2.0
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The life of a young computer systems analyst is thrown into turmoil after arriving in Istanbul to start a new job. She soon finds her passport missing, her credit cards useless, her bank account empty and her identity stolen. As the story progresses we find people and events may not be what they seem.



Young Adam
5.811

A young drifter working on a river barge disrupts his employers' lives while hiding the fact that he knows more about a dead woman found in the river than he admits.

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