Despite being pretty good at geography in high school, I'd never heard of Armenia until my freshman year of college. I was also unaware of the genocide Armenians suffered at the hands of the Turks. It is estimated that 1.5 million were killed. Last night I watched a film on the subject, courtesy of Netflix. The Cut (2014) is the story of the loving father of twins forcibly taken away from his family to work as a slave laborer for the Turkish army. When his crew is slaughtered by its masters, he survives when the man assigned to cut his throat botches the job, severing only vocal chords. He soon begins an arduous quest to find his loved ones. The odyssey leads to Syria, Cuba, Minnesota and North Dakota and points in between. Along the way he is helped by the kind and attacked by the brutal. It is not a flattering portrait of humanity, but it is not exaggerated. It is grounded, never presenting anything unbelievable. What stands out is the love that drives the protagonist even after he has lost his faith in God. Tahar Rahim, a Frenchman, is outstanding as the gentle soul lost in a world gone mad. Fatih Akin, a German of Turkish descent, directed and co-wrote the screenplay. He has received death threats, as many Turks are sensitive about this dark part of their history, which many deny despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Mardik Martin, an American of Armenian descent, co-wrote the screenplay. His pedigree is impressive, having collaborated with Martin Scorsese on Mean Streets (1973) and Raging Bull (1980). 4300+ users at IMDb have rated The Cut, forging to a consensus of 6.3 on a scale of ten, too low in my estimation. It runs more than two hours and does drag at times, but is rewarding overall. Those who prefer light entertainment and have no patience with subtitles should pass. The bloodletting is not over the top, but the images of the dead, which includes children, is disturbing. Here's a still of the protagonist conducting his search:
From Yahoo's Odd News, edited by yours truly: French customs agents found a work of art bearing the signature "Degas" inside a suitcase in a bus's luggage compartment. No one claimed it. Experts verified the work as Les Choristes (The Chorus Singers), which depicts a scene from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. It was stolen from a Marseilles museum in 2009. Here it is:
The floating book shop was open about an hour when the drizzle put the kibosh on it. My thanks to the elderly woman who bought Janet Evanovich's Plum Lucky.
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