war film
War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...
, based on
Kurban Said
Kurban Said ( az, Qurban Səid/, ) is the pseudonym of the author of '' Ali and Nino'', a novel originally published in 1937 in the German language by the Austrian publisher E.P. Tal. The novel has since been published in more than 30 languages. ...
Asif Kapadia
Asif Kapadia (born 1972) is a British filmmaker.
Academy Award, BAFTA and Grammy winning director Asif Kapadia has made his name directing visually striking films exploring ‘outsiders’, characters living in extreme circumstances, fighting ...
Adam Bakri
Adam Bakri ( ar, آدم بكري; born May 15, 1988) is an Israeli-born Palestinian actor. He made his feature film debut by starring in Oscar-nominated film '' Omar'', directed by Hany Abu-Assad. He currently lives in New York.
Early life
A ...
.
Plot
During the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, Ali and Nino fall in love. Ali is a Muslim from
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
who lives in the oil-rich city of Baku, in the family's Shirvanshir Palace. Nino is a
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
n Orthodox Christian whose wealthy Kipiani family also lives in Baku. Ali's friend, Malik, agrees to help bring the aristocratic parents to accept a marriage.
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
breaks out in Europe.
Malik and Nino go to the opera, while Ali and Nino agree to secretly meet afterward. Armenian Malik has also fallen in love with Nino and kidnaps her planning his own marriage to her. Prince Ali confronts and kills Malik with a dagger. Ali is injured during the fight and escapes to Dagestan to heal and hide out from Malik's powerful Nachararyan family. The Russian Revolution deposes
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Polan ...
.
Tamar is afraid no one will ever marry her daughter Nino and plans to send her to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
. Others have their own plans. Ever loyal Mustafa reunites Nino and Ali in the mountains. After a night of lovemaking and with Nino's virginity gone, Ali yells out to call a Mullah. Mustafa assures the couple no priest is necessary for he can perform the marriage ceremony. Despite aristocratic childhoods, simple country life suits the newlyweds and they find true happiness. The
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic), or simply as Azerbaijan in Paris Peace Conference, 1919–1920,''Bulletin d'Information de l'Azerbaidjan'', No. I, September 1, 1919, pp. 6–7''125 H.C.Debs.'', 58., February 24, 1920, p. 1467. Caucasian A ...
wins its own independence.
Ali returns to Baku and gets appointed Deputy Foreign Minister. He begins to raise his young family in a free homeland. The young country signs friendship treaties with its neighbors but they fear the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
in Russia. Learning that the Russians have amassed 30,000 troops on the border, the Azerbaijan government flees by train. As Nino and their daughter head toward
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, Ali jumps off the train and blows up the bridge. Nino is safe but Ali gets shot and killed defending his country.
Epilogue text states that Ali Khan Shirvanshir died aged 24, Prime Minister Fatali Khan was assassinated 6 weeks later, it was 71 years before, in 1991, Azerbaijan reclaimed its independence, and Nino and her daughter escaped to Paris, but never returned to Baku.
Cast
*
Adam Bakri
Adam Bakri ( ar, آدم بكري; born May 15, 1988) is an Israeli-born Palestinian actor. He made his feature film debut by starring in Oscar-nominated film '' Omar'', directed by Hany Abu-Assad. He currently lives in New York.
Early life
A ...
(Palestinian) as Ali Khan Shirvanshir - Azerbaijani - Muslim
*
María Valverde
María Valverde Rodríguez (born 24 March 1987) is a Spanish actress.
Career
At age 16, Valverde had a major role in '' The Weakness of the Bolshevik'', for which she won Best New Actress at the 18th Goya Awards. Her other films include '' Me ...
(Spanish) as Nino Kipiani - Georgian - Christian
*
Riccardo Scamarcio
Riccardo Dario Scamarcio (; born 13 November 1979) is an Italian actor and film producer.
Life and career
Scamarcio was born in Trani, Apulia, the son of Irene Petrafesa, a painter, and Emilio Scamarcio.
He went to train as an actor at the Sc ...
Assaad Bouab
Assaad Bouab ( ar, أسعد بواب, born July 31, 1980) is a French-Moroccan actor whose first co-starring role was in ''Whatever Lola Wants'', directed by Nabil Ayouch and co-starring Laura Ramsey as Lola. The film premiered on 11 December 20 ...
as Ilyas Bey
*
Numan Acar
Numan Acar (born 7 October 1974) is a Turkish-German actor and film producer.
Life and career
Acar was born in 1974 in Kozoglu, a small village in the Kelkit district of Turkey; he lived in the nearby city of Erzincan until 1982, when his famil ...
Connie Nielsen
Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen (born 3 July 1965) is a Danish actress. She has starred as Lucilla in the film ''Gladiator'' (2000) and as Hippolyta in the DC Extended Universe, and in the films ''Wonder Woman'' (2017), '' Justice League'' (2017), '' ...
as Duchess Tamar Kipiani - Nino's mother
*
Mandy Patinkin
Mandel Bruce Patinkin (; born November 30, 1952) is an American actor and singer, known for his work in musical theatre, television and film. He is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received three Tony Award nominations, winning ...
as Duke Gregor Kipiani - Nino's father
*Parviz Mamedrzayev as Qochu
*Qurban Ismayilov as Kasi Mullah
*Jumshud Zeynalov as Yayha Guli
* Fakhraddin Manafov as
Zeynalabdin Taghiyev
, image = Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev.jpg
, image_size = 250px
, caption =
, birth_date = 25 January 1823Musa Naghiyev
*Mehriban Zaki as Sultan Hanum
*Rasim Jafarov as Ivan
Production
Most of the film was shot in
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
.
Reception
The film received mostly mixed-to-negative reviews. It holds a 40% rating on the film
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
from a sample of 10 critics. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film holds 50 out of a 100 score, based on 4 critics. The ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' said, "Kapadia treats intimacy like exposition — time-passage updates mark every scene — leaving his leads to flounder against backdrops. There's zero chemistry or feeling to this sweeping, predictable endeavor, only the scent of what might have been." Godfrey Cheshire of '' RogerEbert.com'' gave ''Ali and Nino'' 2.5 out of 5, while CinaFilm gave the film 3 out of 5 (62%), based on 8 critical reviews.
Ken Jaworowski of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' said that "
he film
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
adapted by Christopher Hampton (''
Atonement
Atonement (also atoning, to atone) is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other ...
Dangerous Liaisons
''Dangerous Liaisons'' is a 1988 American period romantic drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton, based on his 1985 play '' Les liaisons dangereuses'', itself adapted from the 1782 French novel of the s ...
) and shot in Azerbaijan and Turkey, rarely chooses a complex emotion when a straightforward one will do, though it does seek out ornate and grand images. Sure, beauty only gets you so far, but here that’s quite a long way".
''Ali and Nino'' was screened at the Sundance Film Festival where it was reviewed by Peter Debruge of the ''
Variety Magazine
''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based ...
'', who said that "in this uneven return to fiction filmmaking, 'Amy' director Asif Kapadia struggles to convey the sense of tragedy that has made his documentaries so powerful".