runamokprods
I'm a little confused by the cool critical reception this received on release in the U.S.. Yes, it's uneven at times, and it's slightly distanced emotionally for an epic historical melodrama about one of the terrible genocides of the 20th century. Yes, it occasionally traffics in clichés, and there are some clunky lines and awkward moments of dubbing.But that is more than offset by spectacular photography, tremendously affecting scenes of horror, loss, sadness, hope, anachronistic but extremely effective music, and an intelligent attempt to deal with not only the Armenian genocide, but what it means to be a refugee, the nature of silence, the complexity of morality in a morally confusing world, and many other themes that raise it above most of the Hollywood historical melodramas we see, including many that win Oscars and are great successes (many of which also traffic in clichés and have some awkward dialogue). If it's not quite as great as the far more personal and quirky films that are the very best of Akin's work; Head-On, The Edge of Heaven, Crossing the Bridge , it's still a thoughtful and intelligent film by one of the most interesting film-makers in the world today.It tells the story of an Armenian who is forced to leave his family and perform slave labor after the Ottoman Empire enters the first world war, and follows him into ever worse layers of personal hell. Rather than trying to capture the scope of the genocide all around him, for a long while we get only hints and glimpses of the horrible larger truth, seeing only those things our character does. It's an intimate experience of genocide. The second act of the film, once the war is over, is our hero's long and winding journey to try and find what might be left of his family. Not the first time such a subject has been dealt with on film, but this does it with an off-beat and almost dreamlike tone, and a meditative pace. I found myself thinking of filmmakers like Lisandro Alonso as much as Steven Spielberg. It's a strong and worthwhile cross between art-house and old school epic melodrama. If you are willing to forgive the occasional lapse, it's very worth seeing.A note of caution: The German blu-ray, while great looking, does not have English subtitles. The film is largely, but not completely in English (English stands in for Armenian), but some crucial scenes are in Turkish or Arabic, with no translations offered - a real problem. On the other hand, the US DVD has the film mostly dubbed into Armenian (which Akin approves of), and completely subtitled in English, which, strangely was more effective in some ways than the English track (and I usually HATE dubbing). But in this case many of the supporting actors clearly are not native English speakers, and the performances get very stiff and off-putting for it at times. When I saw the film a second time, in the Armenian dub with all English subtitles, it actually helped a lot of those performances flow better, and I found the film a more affecting experience overall. However, I wish there was a release that offered both the original English track with subtitles for all other languages (which doesn't seem to exist), AND the Armenian dubbed track with English titles, as on the US DVD. And while I'm at it, I'd like all that on a blu-ray, since this is a beautifully shot film. Sigh...
Tom Dooley
Tahir Rahim ('A Prophet') stars as Nazarat an Armenian artisan in the town of Mardin. World War I is raging and the Ottoman Turks have thrown in their lot with the forces of Germany and her allies. In Turkey a decision is made to do something about the Christian Armenians. Nazarat is rounded up and forced to work as slave labour – leaving his wife and twin daughters alone to their fate.What befalls him is horrific and what befell the Armenians was a war crime and a crime against humanity. In the aftermath of his travails Nazarat hears that his daughters have survived the blood bath, he then sets out to find them and the majority of the film is taken up with his search.Now this is a fairly good effort, it is a bit shameless at tugging on the heart strings though. It was a wide European co-production and that is reflected in the languages being used. The main language though is English, which is used by most of the players here. That may be why it has faced criticism of some of the acting. That criticism is that some of it was a bit hammy or wooden. It is harder to act in a non native tongue so a lot of the nuances are lost. Rahim is as ever excellent and believable and as a central character to the film he manages to hold it all together very well. There are some plot holes and I could not find if this was based on an actual real story. However, it is fairly engaging and with a run time of around two hours managed to keep me gripped for the most part hence my rating.
bright_eagle_93
As if the director is trying to purposefully demoralize the Armenians.Armenian women preferred to kill themselves and threw themselves from cliffs to protect their dignity. The exact opposite of what the movie shows. In the movie, one girl at the camp in Ras-Al-Ain says I'll do anything take me out of here.Armenian prayer sounds like "balbalbalbal"? Seriously? and the turks would've let the Armenian priest maintain his bible and pray on route?!Nazareth and Krikor watch an Armenian woman wash herself in Aleppo? Seriously; men who had just lost their wives and daughters, and witnessed them getting raped, would go to a whore-house?!Armenian music and songs are so poor that there is only one song and it's Janoi, Janoi, Janoi, Jan?Armenians went to great lengths in rejoining families and rescuing abducted girls and orphans... there are real stories about that. Why Cuba and Minneapolis, what's the hidden agenda behind those?
Horst in Translation ([email protected])
Usually when you hear there is a new World War movie coming out, you can be fairly certain that the second one is in the center of the film. Faith Akin's newest film, however takes place roughly 100 years ago during World War II. The political climate is merely the setting. We do not really see battle scenes where the film takes place, namely in Turkey. Tahar Rahim plays a Georgian living there and we get to witness his fight for survival and finally the search for his two daughters. As the cut mentioned in the film's title refers to his vocal chords, he is silent for pretty much the whole movie apart from the very beginning. Good performance by Rahim.As a whole, I have to say I was not as emotionally involved as I would have liked. However, if you can't deal with violence in movies, you really should not watch this one as it is packed with it from start to finish: lots of dying scenes, several (attempted) rape scenes, mass executions, genocide, assisted suicide and abductions. Most of it is pretty graphic as well. The first half is basically all about Rahim's characters fight for survival and the (good and bad) people he meets during his struggles, while the second half could almost be described as a road movie. We get to see Turkey, Cuba, several locations in the United States and more. The crane scene mentioned in the title of my review is a metaphor I enjoyed a lot as it applies not only to the central character, but also to his two daughters.The ending was rough and uplifting at the same time. There were a couple other situations where it could have ended, like when he gets beaten up by his coworkers and they ask if he is dead, but then again it obviously would have been a totally negative ending, which I don't mind, however. Sometimes that's how it goes. Surviving the genocide and getting beaten to death by a couple racist rednecks. Then again, the real ending was not entirely positive either, so I can live with that. Just not a fan of forced happy endings.The cast is really not famous at all. The only two people I knew apart from Rahim were Moritz Bleibtreu (who worked a lot with Akin in the past) in a one-scene performance and Trine Dyrholm in a slightly bigger role. I cannot say I have been wowed by this movie, but still I'd recommend watching it. The topic is very specific and you'll have a hard time finding another movie about it I guess. I found it pretty interesting to watch for the central character's fate, but also for all the political backgrounds and to see what life was like 100 years earlier.
