Ali and Nino

A very beautiful movie and an excellent one. cinematography is excellent with beautiful scenes of Azerbaijan. I didn't knew Azerbaijan had mountains and snow till I saw this movie. The movie is set in pre- 1st world war time and after seeing this movie one knows that there is a country named Azerbaijan. The story is a love story set in war period. Its pace is very slow and needless to say as is not a Hollywood movie the sets are fine. The love story of cross culture was very usual in the 1960 and 70s. Most of the scenes of action are in the dialogue form as clear with the case of budget. But considering a movie from Azerbaijan, I think it is a feat itself. A good movie.

If you read the book you will see that there were so much better scenes to adapt to the movie. Some scenes were nonsense. Some scenes weren't good enough. Auditioning - failed. Actings weren't satisfying for me: Nino is escaping country because of invasion and she is all happy and smiling at the train. I didn't like her acting at all. Great historical mistakes, wrong costumes etc. Overall maybe a good film for someone who hasn't read the book or doesn't know the culture and history. As I know the history and read the book, I can say that it is a failure of adaptation.

Absolutely brilliant book and movie, masterfully bringing history, action, and romance together in this beautiful piece of art.

"Ali & Nino" ( 2016) I am not usually a fan of Historic Period pieces....but I ADORE Adam Bakri so I thought I would give it a chance. And I am glad I did. What I found was a beautiful love story wrapped in a veil of tragedy. The tale is set from 1914-1920 as World War I is fought.....Azerbaijan claims its independence from Russia....becoming the first democratic state in the Muslim world. The celebrations are short lived as the oil-rich country quickly finds itself having to fight to maintain said independence. At the center are Ali (son of a powerful Muslim man in the capital city of Baku) and Nino (a Christian Georgian princess) who fall hopelessly in love. The film chronicles the struggles, obstacles and enemies of their love and their tenacious fight to stay united.

Strong story, beautiful directing, talented team of actors. This is a very solid historical drama which will appeal not only to patriotic Azerbaijanis but to all genre lovers.

Historical Baku was really well recreated. The shots of historical part of Baku and Caucasus mountains are gorgeous- this paired with splendid costumes make "Ali and Nino" visually a very beautiful movie. Asif Kapadia is an Oscar winning director and you can easily feel it in the movie as directing quality certainly above the average.

The cast is very multinational: Palestinian Arab Adam Bakri seems believable as a son of Azerbaijani khan. Spanish Maria Valverde is charming as Nino and easily evokes from viewers sympathy.

The culture of the East was well shown in the movie, revolution and fight for independence scenes, despite of low budget, are well executed- impressive and tragic as they should be. The last scene on the bridge is wonderful and definitely will burst a lot of people to tears.

My only concern is that movie is really short- only 1.5 hours. Way too little to show such a complicated time period of Azerbaijani history (overthrowal of monarchy and fight for democratic independent republic). You just cannot help but wish for story to slow down and take its time to show more details, maybe add more characters and make it much more than just Ali and Nino story.

But that little what was shown was great as well. Hopefully BBC will watch this movie one day and extend it to miniseries because story still has so much in it and it is definitely too good to be told in such fast and general manner.

It potentially could be a second "Gone with the Winds". But it wasn't due to short length and somewhat shallow portrayal of Eastern culture and historical background. But it is a very strong historical drama movie anyways. Beautifully shot and most importantly- it has a heart. It will bring you smile, test your nerves, brig tears- and sometimes all at once in one scene.

If you are familiar with Azerbaijan only via Eurovision and recent European Olympic games, I definitely recommend to watch this movie. It is a great opportunity to get familiar with early stages of Azerbaijani Democratic Republic formation and to grasp heart and soul of the nation.

10 out 10