Best known for his acclaimed, hit documentaries Amy and Senna (at least here in the United States), director Asif Kapadia actually began his career with narrative dramas. He returned to his roots this year at Sundance with Ali & Nino, a sweeping period epic set in around World War I. Picked up by IFC Films for a release this week, the first trailer has now arrived.
We said in our review, “There is nary a film genre more tried and true than the war-time romance. From Casablanca to Doctor Zhivago to The English Patient, the structure allows for a micro conflict injected into a macro scenario. From a script by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liasons, Atonement), adapted from the novel under the pseudonym Kurban Said, and directed by Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy), Ali and Nino strives for the status of epic but falls considerably short.”
Starring María Valverde, Mandy Patinkin, Adam Bakri, Connie Nielsen, and Homayoun Ershadi, check out the trailer below.
Set against the sweeping tide of history, this is the breathtaking tale of a romance that crosses political, geographic, and religious divides. Azerbaijan, 1918: though he is Muslim and she is Christian, Ali (Adam Bakri) and Nino (Maria Valverde) defy their parents and marry. At first it appears that their all-consuming love will be enough to overcome the differences in their backgrounds. But their bond is soon put the test, first as she confronts what it means to be a westernized woman living in a traditionalist society, and then again when everything they know is turned upside down by the arrival of World War I. Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia (Amy) from a script by Atonement screenwriter Christopher Hampton, Ali and Nino transports viewers to a land of awe-inspiring beauty and a time of great upheaval. With Mandy Patinkin.
Ali & Nino hits theaters and VOD on November 18.