Another Version of Star-Crossed Love, by Rachel Saltz - The New York Times

MOVIE REVIEW | 'CHERKESS'

The New York Times - Published: November 3, 2011

The Capulets and Montagues here are Circassians and Bedouins. The two need to live as neighbors when a group of Circassians emigrates from Istanbul to what is now Jordan in 1900. (Mr. Quandour’s film sketches in this history in its first minutes.)

The Ottoman authorities have settled the Circassians near the area’s only water source so they can farm, which angers some of the Bedouins. Though both groups are Muslims, their cultures don’t overlap much. So when Nart (Azamat Bekov), a Circassian with fantastic skills as a horseman falls for Hind (Sahar Bishara), the beautiful daughter of a Bedouin sheikh, the situation seems explosive. (Stick to your own kind!)

Told simply and straightforwardly (it could almost be a silent movie), “Cherkess” is less about forbidden romance than about wise counsel. Nart and Hind’s love story has the inevitability of a fairy tale and about as much specificity: the handsome horseman must have his beautiful princess. Full stop.

The lovers have their moony scenes, but the meetings that Mr. Quandour is really interested in are between the tribal elders, the Circassian Temur (Mohadeen Komakhov) and the Bedouin Abu Aziz (Mohamad Al Abadi). Again and again, these two wage peace, preventing hotheads from wreaking havoc, even when provoked. Mr. Quandour’s utopian vision may seem improbable — that fairy tale quality again — but his odd, guileless, folkloric movie doesn’t feel cloying so much as something from a different world.

Source: The New York Times