The Cut

Fatih Akin, a German-born filmmaker of Turkish descent, makes films about outsiders and the disenfranchised. The Cut takes viewers back 100 years to the Ottoman Empire (in an area that is now Turkey) to chronicle the odyssey of Nazareth Manoogian (Tahar Rahim), an Armenian Christian torn from his family by the Turks during World War I. Nazareth survives the Armenian genocide (an historical event still officially denied in Turkey) and treks halfway across the world to try to find his daughters. Nazareth's journey spans almost a decade, as he traverses thousands of miles (through Lebanon, Cuba, Florida, and the plains of the American Midwest), and deals with people speaking multiple languages, although he himself was left speechless from a throat wound (the cut of the film's title). Nazareth observes and endures inhuman acts of cruelty, but is also the beneficiary of kindness and generosity from strangers along the way. Akin wrote the script with Mardik Martin, an Iraqi-born American of Armenian descent who co-wrote Mean Streets and Raging Bull with Martin Scorsese. Powerful and devastating, The Cut is a richly realized film with complicated characters and beautiful desolate landscapes shot on location in Europe, Africa, Cuba, and North America (Alberta substitutes for the United States). Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)