The Cut (2014) Online

2014 Tahar Rahim Simon Abkarian Makram Khoury Fatih Akin

Original Title :: The Cut
Genre :: Movie / Adventure / Drama / History / Mystery / War
Year :: 2014
Directror :: Fatih Akin
Cast :: Tahar Rahim,Simon Abkarian,Makram Khoury
Writer :: Fatih Akin,Mardik Martin
Budget :: €16,000,000
Type :: Movie
Time :: 2h 18min
Rating :: 6.3/10

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 Cut (2014) Online

This film is based on the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire 1915, which resulted in the forced migration and diaspora of the Armenian minority. One day a young family man, Nazaret Manoogian, gets deported by the Turkish authorities together with all the other Armenian men from his native village of Mardin. He becomes a forced laborer and only survives the mass murder by chance and an act of kindness, but loses his family, speech and faith. One night the devastated Nazaret learns that his daughters may still be alive and didn't die like his wife from starvation, violence or rape on death marches. Nazaret goes on a quest to find them and travels from his small village through the Mesopotamian deserts to the sea, always looking for clues that might lead him to his children. Nazaret's epic journey will take him from Asia to America, from the end to a new beginning...

Complete credited cast:
	Tahar Rahim	-	Nazaret Manoogian
	Simon Abkarian	-	Krikor
	Makram Khoury	-	Omar Nasreddin
	Hindi Zahra	-	Rakel
	Kevork Malikyan	-	Hagob Nakashian
	Bartu Küçükçaglayan	-	Mehmet
	Zein Fakhoury	-	Arsinée
	Dina Fakhoury	-	Lucinée
	Trine Dyrholm	-	Orphanage Headmistress
	Arsinée Khanjian	-	Mrs. Nakashian
	Akin Gazi	-	Hrant
	Arevik Martirosyan	-	Ani
	Moritz Bleibtreu	-	Peter Edelman
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
	Adam Bousdoukos
	Lara Heller	-	Lucinée & Arsinée Manoogian (Adult)

This marks the first script for a feature film written by Mardik Martin in 34 years. His last known work was for Raevunud härg (1980).

Fatih Akin on informing the audience about the historic Armenian Genocide through The Cut (2014): "I believe in that. Certain people may not need it. But other people need another rhetoric to understand this, I don't want to be preachy or act as a teacher but I want to create empathy. I made the film so that the Turkish audience could identify with an Armenian hero, which isn't easy. To do this you have to keep it simple and not challenge the audience with too much intellectual attitudes, but challenge them emotionally."

Martin Scorsese was quoted as saying: "Fatih Akin's The Cut (2014) is a genuine, hand-made epic, of the type that people just don't make anymore. In other words, a deeply personal response to a tragic historical episode, that has great intensity, beauty and sweeping grandeur. This picture is very precious to me, on many levels."

Fatih Akin dedicated The Cut (2014) to the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink (September 15, 1954 - January 19, 2007) referring to him as his "teacher" in the film's end credits. Dink was a prominent member of the Armenian minority in Turkey and editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos. He was best known for advocating Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and human rights in Turkey. Dink was prosecuted by Turkish law 3 times for "denigrating Turkishness", and received numerous death threats from Turkish nationalists, before he was assassinated in January 2007 by Ogün Samast, a 17-year old Turkish nationalist, in Istanbul. This murder happened shortly after the premiere of the documentary Screamers (2006), in which Dink is interviewed about the Turkish denial of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and the case against him under Article 301. While Ogün Samast has been taken into custody, photographs of the assassin next to smiling Turkish police members, posing with the murderer in front of the Turkish flag, have since surfaced. The photos created a scandal in Turkey, prompting investigations and the removal from office of those involved. At the funeral of Hrant Dink 200.000 mourners marched in protest of his assassination, chanting "We are all Armenians" and "We are all Hrant Dink". Criticism of Article 301 became vocal after his death, leading to parliamentary proposals for repeal. The 2007-2008 academic year at the 'College of Europe' in Belgium was named in Dink's honour.

Director and screenwriter Fatih Akin is a German citizen of Turkish descent. Screenwriter Mardik Martin is an American citizen of Armenian descent. The Cut (2014) represents the first collaboration between an Armenian and a Turkish screenwriter on a feature film about the Armenian Genocide in film history.

The main character's name 'Nazaret Manoogian', played by Tahar Rahim, contains multiple references: The first name is obviously a reference to the Armenian people's Christian religion (Jesus of Nazareth). The surname can be interpreted as a reference to two prominent Armenian-Americans: a) Alex Manoogian (June 28, 1901 - July 10, 1996) was an Armenian refugee of genocide from the Ottoman Empire and immigrant to the United States, who later became an industrial engineer, businessman and entrepreneur in Detroit, Michigan. The billionaire Manoogian was a philanthropist who donated to churches, educational institutions and charities of the Armenian Diaspora, to preserve and continue their culture. In 1993, Alex Manoogian was named a 'National Hero of Armenia' and a citizen of Armenia by President Levan Ter Petrosian, the first person outside the country to be so honored. In 2007 Alex Manoogian and his wife Marie, who died in 1993, were buried with state honors in the Republic of Armenia. b) Haig Manoogian (May 23, 1916 - May 26, 1980) was an Armenian-American professor of film at New York University and a major influence on filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, who was one of his students. Manoogian co-produced Scorsese's first feature film I Call First (1967). His masterpiece Raevunud härg (1980) is dedicated "with love and resolution" to his former teacher Manoogian. Since director Fatih Akin dedicated this film among others to Scorsese as his "master and godfather" this reference must be regarded as intentional.

Fatih Akin on the message of The Cut (2014): "I come from a religious family, with strict dogmas and it took a while to get rid of them. I now have my own definition of what is right and wrong, good and evil. You can say I'm a spiritual person. The film is about that: Someone losing his religion but getting the sense of spirituality."

Screenwriter Mardik Martin co-wrote Agulitänavad (1973), New York, New York (1977) and Raevunud härg (1980) for director Martin Scorsese. In addition Martin wrote or co-wrote the treatments for three of Scorsese's early documentary projects: Italianamerican (1974) , Viimane valss (1978) and American Boy: A Profile of - Steven Prince (1978). Scorsese and Martin were both film students at NYU and started their long-lasting collaboration in 1964 with the short It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964). In 2014 Scorsese met again with Martin and director Fatih Akin to see a version of The Cut (2014), their first meeting in over a decade.

Fatih Akin on cinematic and literary inspirations for The Cut (2014): "Elia Kazan's America America (1963), certain aesthetics of the cinematography, as well as shooting the film in English and naturally the long voyage of the young man through the impoverished towns and villages on the way to Constantinople. I had Westerns in my mind to inspire me, The Searchers (1956) by John Ford, and also Homer's 'The Odyssey' certainly was a reference for me: The journey of the hero who tries to return to his family."

Since 2014 Mardik Martin, M.A. is a Professor at the 'University of Southern California (USC) - School of Cinematic Arts' in Los Angeles. Since many years he was a Senior Lecturer in Screenwriting.

Screenwriter Mardik Martin is of Armenian descent. Other Armenian artists of significance in film include for example Atom Egoyan, Sergei Parajanov (born Sarkis Parajanian), Cher (born Cheryl Sarkisian), Henri Verneuil (born Ashot Malakian), William Saroyan, Haig Manoogian, Rouben Mamoulian, Robert Guédiguian, Eric Bogosian, Richard C. Sarafian, Francis Veber, Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes, Anna Melikyan, Aram Avakian, Steven Zaillian and Angela Sarafyan.

User reviews

Arryar

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...

Crazy

Despite some things that could have been made better or, lets say, different, it was a very good film. And it had an optimistic touch to it: A brave mans journey throughout the continents to seek his lost daughters. And really no one would want to watch a 2 hour snuff film only describing the genocide, for that you can watch documentaries about it.

The scene in the movie theater with the Chaplin film running was very powerful. That alone was worth 10/10 for me. It shows the huge impact that moving pictures have on us. Movies can help to deal with real things in the world and thats what Akin has done with his film about the genocide.

For Turks "The Cut" holds the message, that no one needs be afraid of their history, since even some Turks helped Armenians during the genocide (not only in this fictional movie).

Sidenote: Not only Armenians very targeted with that genocide, that could have been at least referenced in the film.

About the ratings in general: I stopped paying attention to ratings at IMDb and other sites some time ago, because they are made by many people and many critics. And....well, most people have a bad taste. At least it doesn't match mine :).

There are lots of good series and movies out there apart from for example "The Wire" or "Dr. Strangelove". They just have a bad rating for some reason or are not popular and not hyped.

Ienekan

I lost myself many times during this film. I felt pain. I felt culpability. My hearth got hold of my mind..

The cut is very important film about Turks' and Armenian's conscience. It's milestone. I'm not film critic. Maybe the critics can bring lots of criticisms about its filmography, but It's very clear that The Cut break down the prejudices and provide to establish empathy. It should not be forgotten that The Cut is a product of normalization of Turkey. It's depart point of facing the past. It's big contribution to the relation of Turks and Armenians.

Thanks you Faith Akın to your encourage.

Kelerius

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.

Aria

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.

Mr.Bean

"The Cut(2014)" is Turkish born German director Fathe Akin's first high budget lavish international film. Fathe Akin got death threats from Turkey because of making this film on the backdrop of world's largest genocide after Nazi Holocaust, the Armenian genocide. In Turkey today it is a serious crime to use the word "Genocide" in reference to the systematic expulsion of Armenians from Turkish Soil in the period from 1915 to 1923. During this time 1.5 million Armenians were either murdered outright or perished on forced death marches through the Syrian Desert. A few Turkish intellectuals have spoken out against the official Turkish policy of Genocide.

"The Cut" is the deep wound to human heart. It is an intense and emotional journey which depresses our soul. The scale, immensity and quality of this masterpiece makes us remember Chinese master director Feng Xiaogang's "Aftershock (2010)". The scenes like protagonist Tahar Rahim (of "A Prophet" fame) watching Charlie Chaplin's film makes us emotionally outburst.

This is one of the very important films about history. An intense and dark masterpiece about humanity.

Umsida

Faith Akin's epic tale of hope and survival, set in the time of the Armenian Genocide amidst the Great War and the resulting diaspora all over the world. I watched 'The Cut' lately during the London Film Festival, and found it worth the time in general and definitely had its good moments. It did not go for over-sentimentality and didacticism but rather showed an impressive journey of search and survival. For me, the wide shots in the desert and in the streets of Cuba were special, and there was very good work with costumes and set decoration. Some might argue that Armenians and Turks speaking English felt unnatural but it was totally justified for me.

However, the film fell short in several aspects, and during viewing I constantly had the feeling that much more could have been done with the powerful story that could have greatly enriched and added more depth to the end-product. The poor screenplay dialogue was the most obvious shortcoming in the film, and while its over-simplicity can be regarded by some as appealing minimalism, it remained a huge disappointment. One scene epitomised the problem here, when the protagonist discovered that his daughters were still alive, his friend shouted exuberantly with no more than "This is good .. this is good ". It is possible here that using the English language presented a problem. The contrived ending was, to a lesser extent, irritating as well but the slow camera work saved it. I found a particular scene very interesting, when the Turks were evacuating the Syrian city and a Turkish boy got injured by a thrown stone, and the protagonist's reaction, and I wish there were more of these side stories, like watching Chaplin's 'The Kid'.

In addition to screenplay, several techniques could have added more to the story; exposition by flashbacks at different parts of the journey (some dreams were deployed but to a limited effect), voice- overs contemplating the condition of humanity at the time of war. A good soundtrack could have made a big difference as well, and in such a film I think dispensing of such a poor soundtrack altogether could have yielded a better result and added a minimalistic touch, although of course this would have been difficult with the protagonist speech handicap and the lack of a narrator.

The challenging task for the main actor, to rely entirely on facial expressions and body gestures because of handicap early in the narrative, was met by a solid performance, but could be easily overlooked by general audience because of the shortcomings of the other narration elements.

An impressive story of survival, and a very important yet overlooked subject in recent history compared with others of even less scale, but less impressive film. The beautiful shots and powerful story were not enough to elevate it to the epic legendary status, but it is still worth watching.

AGAD

As a retired history teacher, I think I should explain the context for "The Cut". It is set in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. The Empire is on its last legs, having lasted for many centuries, it's on the losing side in the war and would soon be broken up into many countries. In the meantime, the ruling Turks had many ethnic groups and religions within the empire. During this time, many Christians there were being persecuted...but none more vigorously than the Armenians. These people were despised by the empire and a horrible genocide was committed. Many of the Armenian men were pressed into the army and then literally worked to death. As for most of the women and children, they were herded into vast concentration camps where they were simply not fed or given water and died in the desert heat. Estimates are that in total between 800,000 and 1,500,000 Armenians died during this short period...and the remainder who managed to escape became exiles living abroad. Oddly, while most everyone throughout the world acknowledges that this occurred, still today Turkey denies that this occurred and many of its allies are unwilling to publicly mention it. In light of all this, the collaborative team of Faith Akin (Director and co- writer) and Mardik Martin (co-writer) is quite unusual. Faith is a German of Turkish descent and Mardik is an Armenian-American--a very unlikely pair working to expose the truth.

The film begins with Armenian men being pressed into work gangs by the army. Their work is back-breaking and soon you see them die one by one. When they don't die quick enough, the officer in charge orders his men to slit the throats of all the Armenians--no use wasting bullets on them. One of the men forced to kill has a conscience and has a hard time getting himself to kill one of the prisoners. At gunpoint, he finally stabs the man in the throat...but it isn't fatal and the soldiers assume the Armenian is dead. However, Nazaret is only gravely wounded and eventually the man who stabbed him returns to help him escape. Unfortunately, Nazaret is left mute--unable to talk because of the wound. Throughout the rest of the film, Nazaret slowly searches for his family and his journey takes him from Turkey to the Middle East to Cuba and eventually to the Dakotas in the United States! Is he able to find any of his family or were they simply liquidated like most of his people?

This is a very well made and, at times, extremely unpleasant movie. This is not a complaint. After all, you cannot make genocide a happy thing and, like Schindler's List, it's often rather depressing and harrowing. This is certainly not a film for children--they can always watch it when they're older and if you do let them see it, by all means watch it with them. Once you get through the sad and awful parts in the first part of the film, you'll find that it's a bit easier to watch. My only reason for not scoring it a bit higher is because of two minor problems. First, you can tell that the film was made on a limited budget and many of the scenes should have been much larger in scope and had more actors, didn't. As examples, the death camp scene and the portion with the army forcing the Armenians to work themselves to death only had a tiny number of actors--only a few dozen at most. Additionally, at times the film is a bit slow-- particularly during the second half. Neither of these things, however, are serious problems and the film is worth seeing and as well as finely crafted. Excellent direction and a sprawling, epic quality, along with an important subject matter, make this a truly memorable viewing experience.

Gianni_Giant

This film tackles a topic of huge dramatic potential, and it is certainly a bold move for a director with Turkish roots to take this task on, given the pathological aversion of the Turkish authorities to any reference to the Armenian genocide. Unfortunately, in my view the film fails almost entirely as a film, both technically and in terms of character development/dialog. Furthermore, it avoids really facing the issue of the genocide itself, the historical background and the sheer scale of the killings. The genocide involved hundreds of thousands of people; the film contains scenes in the desert involving a tiny group of Armenian men haplessly shifting a few rocks backwards and forwards, guarded by a few Ottoman troops - the whole scene works more like a cheaply-produced pantomime set; to portray the scale of the actual events you really need epic cinematography, which apparently the budget just wasn't up to.

Then there is the totally one-dimensional plot, a series of fairly arbitrary stages on a journey, with no obvious motivations or connections for choice of scenes (why Cuba, Minneapolis ...?), no development of real relationships between any of the characters, and a final denouement that can only be termed anti-climactic.

We also find numerous clichés - the barbaric Kurds (rapists), the wily Bedouin (keeping helpless Christian women captive), the saintly soap-maker - who, despite being the owner of a sizable factory, still wanders around the desert alone with his donkey and his cart, the happy Armenian tradesman and his family torn apart by the genocide etc etc.

The main blessing of the film for me was that the lead character loses his voice early on in the film (another totally implausible twist of the plot), which spares us yet more of the generally flat dialogs.

Hulis

It has taken a certain courage for Akin Faith, a Turk, to make 'The Cut', a tale of wandering of an Armenian in the aftermath of the Armenian genocide a century ago in the twilight hours of the Ottoman Empire. It also helps that Akin doesn't live in Turkey, but Germany, which spares him of a danger to his life were in Turkey. Technically, the film is well shot, but, alas, too long as Nazarat Moonogian takes up the pilgrim's staff to find his twin daughters. As Nazarat (Nazareth), Akin chose well: the Cesar winning actor Rahim Tahar, who does a yeoman's job as the wandering Armenian, as he goes from Syria to Lebanon then Cuba to Minneapolis and finally to the snow driven plains of North Dakota to find his daughter. As his name implies he is the embodiment of a Christian hero who has suffered much, for like his namesake, he is the branch of family that although disfigured by a Turkish massacre, he remains rooted in the soil of his determination and his ethnicity that is still capable of bearing fruit and surviving. 'The Cut' is a cinematic thanksgiving of survival, grit and determination to withstand the vagaries of Turkish prejudice. And, it is to Akin camera that honesty in dealing with a genocide which even today Turkey denies.

Malaris

IN Turkey today it is a serious crime to use the word "Genocide" in reference to the systematic expulsion of Armenians from Turkish Soil in the period from 1915 to 1923. During this time 1.5 million Armenians (highly conservative estimate!) were either murdered outright or perished on forced death marches through the Syrian desert. A few Turkish intellectuals have spoken out against the official Turkish policy of Genocide Denial but, needless to say, there has never been a Turkish film touching this theme --- Until now! THE CUT, Directed by German-Turkish filmmaker Faith Akin pulls no punches in depicting Turkish Brutality in excruciating detail and the scattering of the survivors to the far ends of the earth -- in this case Cuba, Minneapolis, and finally the frozen wastes of North Dakota in winter. Faith AKIN (42) establishedß his Credentials with the Film "Against the Wall" depicting friction between Turks and Kurds in Hamburg which won the Golden Bear Top Prize at Berlin in 2004. Since then he has continued to address controversial issues in his films with characteristic boldness. THE CUT opens in the home of the peaceful Armenian Manoogian family but soon Turkish soldiers burst in, Gestapo style, and cart all the men off for "investigation" as the rest of the family cowers in terror. Next we see the men outside doing forced labor chopping rocks but soon they are put up against a rock wall to be executed. The Turkish commander orders his men to slash their throats rather than waste precious bullets on the worthless Armenian prisoners. All are then brutally slashed to death but one young man, Nazareth Manoogian, whose neck wounds were not fatal manages to survive. (Tarah Rahim, French actor of Algerian descent!) -- however the injury has left him unable to speak -- mute. He then proceeds to turn in a fantastic performance with hardly any dialog -- only a few words of strangled Armenian late in the film. Most of the dialog if the film is however spoken in Turkish western Armenian by native Armenian actors with some Spanish in the Cuban sequence. Found half dead with partially slashed throat and rescued by a kindly Turkish man Nazaret escapes to a neighboring country and some years later learns that his twin daughters have survived and are alive, last heard from in Cuba. He works his way laboriously over to Cuba but his daughters are no longer there ~ last destination allegedly Minneapolis on the American mainland. Again the trail is cold as they have somehow moved on to rural North Dakota. Himself half frozen as he drags himself across the snowy wastes he finally comes, almost miraculously, upon the surviving daughter now full grown. Tearful reunion in a truly remote corner of the Armenian Diaspora. This grueling international road movie is based on a fiction novel but points a non-compromising finger at the grim historical reality of Turkish ethnic cleansers and genocide perpetrators, while also addressing the indomitable Armenian will to survive no matter how widely dispersed. Overall, a gripping drama as well as a compact lesson in Armenian Genocide and Diaspora studies. Aside from that a very interesting film with a towering performance by non-Armenian actor Tahar Rahim in the central nearly silent role of an Armenian holocaust survivor. Most exceptional that it is made by a Turkish director. Bravo Faith Akin! NOTE: The title refers to one of the words routinely used by Diaspora Armenians in reference to the Turkish Genocide.

Faell

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.

Fonceiah

I found "The Cut" to be quite an amazing film. The story is epic almost biblical and unforgettable. Through the horrors of the Armenian genocide a few acts of humanity make all the difference. It's probably not the best film for the flapjack eating simpleton but if you can handle subtitles, respect other cultures and appreciate profound human experience, pick this one up. It certainly beats the prepackaged, formula, market tested, predictable hogwash vomited out of Hollywood year after year.

Kanrad

A true masterpiece!Liked it a lot!

Faith Akin - unique as always.I would say that "The cut" is one of his best films.

Very hard to watch it on some points - kind of painful - the armenian genocide is historical fact.

Very good scenario and actors!

Definitely one of the best movies, which i have watched this year.

Highly recommend "The Cut" to everyone who wants to understand what the real cinema is!

Gave 9 to the movie and i think this movie absolutely deserved it.

Buriwield

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

Olelifan

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?

Andromakus

Not a movie for every ones taste, because this movie is quite hard stuff because it's content is about a genocide. In some of the scenes i got goosebumps because of the emotional character of the scenes (especially when Armenians got killed or when the protagonist had to kill his sister in law, when he was angry about "god"). The finding of his child in the 2nd part of the film was a little bit sluggish, but also these sluggish scenes created an atmosphere how hard it was to find his daughters. Like my forerunner said, for my taste it had been a good movie and it is NOT for everyone's taste. If you like Science-Fiction or would like to watch a cuddle movie, don't watch this one.

Maveri

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.

Brick my own

This movie directed by Faith Akin really turned out to be different from what I expected. From some earlier research I had conducted, I was expecting a movie based on the story of the Armenian "genocide". However, the movie turned out to tell a story by itself. Of course, the Armenian "genocide" could be a story itself but this movie showed us something more. This movie really cut deep into the wound of a society.

The Armenians have a wound and no one can deny this. No one can stand up and say that those people didn't suffer or that they were treated fairly in 1915. No historian should yell out that the Turks were just but the circumstances weren't. Maybe they can confirm this with their mind but not with their soul. And Armenians on the other side shouldn't be yelling out that the Turks have to pay for what they did. How can you make someone pay for what happened 100 years ago? Well then, the Germans should pay for what the Nazis did back in the World War II. Is that how things work around with history and the mistakes our ancestors have made in the past?

Going back to the movie, it really has a touching story though it bores the viewer at some points. Not to mention some really disturbing scenes. The movie starts out kind of slow and emotional but as our main character Nazar develops; we get more interested in him than the historical bullshit going during the time. The movie achieves to capture the attention of the audience with a side story. Then that side story becomes the real story itself. A father searching for his lost daughters. The hardships and sacrifices he has to make. The emotional sufferings he has to go through. It all attracts the viewer.

As a whole the movie is worth watching. One particular scene that I enjoyed the most is when an audience is watching a Charlie Chaplin movie. The scene was so ironic and filled with contrary emotions that it gave me the chills. The scene perfectly raises a purge of emotions. It also foreshadows the ending of the movie. So if you also want to be slightly cut by a misfortune event that cut many things from many people, I would say go for this movie. It is definitely worth getting cut for..

Yramede

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.

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