The Cut

Since I got to live in Turkey once for a year out of romance, I can honestly say that I love the place. I learned the language and developed an intense taste for Ezogelin and the ingenious music of Mercan Dede, Aynur Doğan and Ogün Sanlısoy. I got to know that the greatest poet of the 20th century - Nâzım Hikmet - was from Turkey. And I got to know that the one issue you cannot talk about is the Armenian genocide. One meets a teacher of English in Ankara or a martial arts instructor in Fethiye, one talks to Kurdish musicians in Diyarbakir or a CalState-educated engineer in Istanbul, and always encounters the same all-encompassing culture of denial – even though there is no discrimination against Armenians today, who have an active cultural life.

However this is supposed to be a review. "The Cut" is the fictional story of Nazaret Manoukian's unlikely survival of being pressed into the Turkish army, where he works in road construction. Eventually, the Armenian men are forced to either convert to Islam or die. The man assigned to kill Nazaret just stabs his throat, piercing his vocal cords and turning him mute – which is what the title alludes to. Nazaret finds shelter with an Arab and works in his tannery. After the war is over, he learns that his twin daughters are still alive, and embarks on a long journey across the world to find them.

Alas, what was designed by director Faith Akin to kindle a discussion of the Armenian genocide and was intended as a conclusion to his master pieces "Head On" (2004) and "The Edge of Heaven" (2007) is a failure. As noble as Akin's intentions are, the ingenuity and acting presence of his previous films is gone. Tahar Rahim is decidedly miscast for the main role, as brilliant as he might have been in "A Prophet" or "The Past". He is much too young and plays the part in a vacant, uninvolved manner. Ironically, Simon Abkarian, who would have been perfect, appears in a small supporting role. The horrors of the genocide, while shown in part, are actually downplayed so as not to completely offend Turkish viewers – which did not work at all and did not shelter Akin from intense criticism. For Western viewers, the imbalance between the rather short wartime story – which is of principal interest – and the long, long, loooong journey of the main character to find his daughters makes the film a bore.

Were the approach to the genocide less timid, the weakness of the acting and script would be forgivable. But as it is, "The Cut" is nothing more than a interesting failure; a failure well worth seeing to understand how difficult a subject the Armenian genocide still is, but not worth seeing as a film. Hopefully, one day someone will find the courage and budget to adapt "The 40 Days of Musa Dagh" by Franz Werfel, the greatest and most inspiring story about this subject, published on the eve of Hitler's rise to power and a terrifying reminder of the shape of things to come back then and now.

Faith Akin really likes personal stories. And it shows here, where you have a big part of Armenian history, which isn't talked about much as Sid Haig told me at Convention. But something that is very real for the people and part of their heritage and history, they haven't dealt with that much.

It's also a topic that you won't be likely to see in a Hollywood movie. So this international production helps shed some light on it. By going personal, it makes it more relatable. It also makes it open for discussion if it should be broader and show many more things that went down during that time. You could argue about the ability of most people to talk in English, but that has been done many times and is to make this more accessible worldwide and should not distract you too much from what the movie tries to tell you

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.

I should say Faith Akin is currently one of the most important directors from Germany of Turkish descent. He brought a fresh spirit to German and Turkish film scene. He shows also great courage with the theme Armenian Genocide. He explains a personal story, but also takes a step to the Armenians from Turkish side, and try to say "we understand your suffering." Regrettably that is enough to be excommunicated from Turkish community, because it is still a taboo to talk about Armenian problem in such a way.

It is a pity that he missed such a great chance to create a good film with his humanistic intentions. Most of the scenes feel like staged, acting is mostly average. The main problem with the movie is the atmosphere. When I see a good movie, I forget that it is a movie and create an emotional connection with the characters. That is the most important thing for me as I evaluate a film. And it lacked completely for me. It could be the worst cinematographic work of Faith Akin till now. Still deserves above average from me.

I am generally a fan of Akin's movies and this one is not an exception. It was a very good film. The scenery is amazing, the acting is stellar, especially the main actor's mute yet very expressive performance. The story line is multi-faceted and very balanced: It does not assign guilt in just one direction. There are plenty of people who help on all sides (Armenians, Turks, Arabs, Americans), there are lots of people with personal weaknesses fighting for themselves first, including the hero, and there are barbarians everywhere also. And every page that turns gives us a new perspective on what has happened to Armenians back then.

This movie is not only important to confront Turkish society with its history, it is also very timely with the global refugee crisis. It humanizes and personalizes the experience of loss and death that those who survive war and genocide go through, and the suffering of those who have to flee home in general.