This week’s journey through my Letterboxd Map takes us to Azerbaijan as we explore Ali and Nino.
Title: Ali and Nino
Director: Asif Kapadia
Released: January 27, 2016 (Theatrical – United States)
Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
Set in Baku on the eve of World War I, Ali and Nino follows Ali Khan Shirvanshir (Adam Bakri), a Muslim Azerbaijani nobleman, and Nino Kipiani (María Valverde), a Georgian Orthodox Christian from an aristocratic family. Despite their different cultural and religious backgrounds, the two fall in love and plan to marry.
Ali’s family is more accepting than Nino’s mother, who fears her daughter will lose her independence. As war spreads and political alliances shift, betrayal, violence, exile, and the instability of the collapsing Russian Empire force the couple into constant movement as they try to hold onto the future they imagined together.
Ali and Nino looks incredible. The cinematography makes excellent use of the landscapes of both Azerbaijan and Turkey, and nearly every exterior shot has an almost postcard-like quality to it. The costumes and production design also do a convincing job of selling both the period setting and the wealth surrounding many of the characters. Visually, the film consistently feels much larger and more expensive than it actually is.
But that’s where the good ends.
For something positioned as an epic romance, Ali and Nino moves through its major events far too quickly. Characters are introduced, separated, reunited, betrayed, and transformed before the audience really has time to invest in who they are. Emotional moments come and go without much impact, and the film often relies on sweeping landscape shots and abrupt transitions to bridge major gaps in time rather than properly building momentum.
By the end, it feels less like a fully realized epic and more like a condensed version of one. There’s enough material here for a much larger and richer story, but squeezed into a runtime of just over 100 minutes, everything feels underdeveloped. The film constantly gestures toward depth it never earns.
I ultimately walked away admiring the visuals far more than the characters or the romance at its center. There’s a version of this story that takes its time, that lets you feel the weight of what Ali and Nino are risking and what they stand to lose.
This isn’t that version. It’s a beautiful film that never quite becomes a moving one.
If you’ve seen Ali and Nino, curious what you thought of it.