German Turkish director Fatih Akin (THE EDGE OF HEAVEN) and Iranian writer of Armenian descent Mardik Martin - an early screenwriter for Martin Scorcese (to whom THE CUT is dedicated) from the short IT'S NOT JUST YOU, MURRAY! through RAGING BULL - collaborate on a moving and visually stunning epic drama of faith (or the loss of it) and family against the backdrop of the Armenian genocide. When the Ottomon Empire allies with Austria-Hungary in the first world war, non-Muslim minorities are forcibly conscripted, including Christian metalsmith Nazaret (Tahar Rahim, A PROPHET) who is torn away from his wife (Hindi Zahra) and twin daughters Arsinée and Lucinée. Assigned to road construction, Nazaret and his fellow Armenians witness the death marches of Armenian women, children, and old men, and wonder what has become of their own families. After they refuse the chance to convert to Islam and be released, Nazaret and the other Armenians who refused are taken to be executed by criminals dispatched solely for that purpose. Nazaret's executioner is Mehmet (Bartu Küçükçaglayan, HUNTING SEASON), a small-time thief reluctant to kill, whose hesitation results in a throat wound that robs Nazaret of his voice. Realizing that Nazaret is still alive, Mehmet escapes in the night and takes the wounded man with him. They fall in with a band of deserters, but a recuperating Nazaret is desperate to get back to his family. He finds his village in ruins and his ailing sister-in-law (Arevik Martirosyan) in a nearby camp. Before she dies, she tells him that his wife and children are also dead ("God is not merciful," she tells him before begging him to end her suffering). Renouncing his faith, Nazaret keeps on the move to avoid the Ottomans and their allies, and ends up sheltered by Muslim soap-maker Omar Nasreddin (Makram Khoury, MUNICH) whose shop becomes a refugee hostel when the war ends and the Turks are ousted. When Nazaret runs into his former apprentice (Shubham Saraf), he discovers that his wife gave their daughters to Bedouins to save them, and soon embarks on a globe-spanning journey to find them. ARARAT's Simon Abkarian appears as a fellow Armenian refugee who connects with Nazaret while they are still being hidden by Omar, THE CELEBRATION's Trine Dyrholm briefly appears as the headmistress of an orphanage Nazaret comes to in search of his daughters, MIDNIGHT EXPRESS' Kevork Malikyan appears as an Armenian barber in Cuba and Atom Egoyan's wife Arsinée Khanjian (SPEAKING PARTS) as his wife who attempted to arrange marriages for Nazaret's daughters.