The Cut

The Cut (2014), directed by Fatih Akin, is an epic historical drama you can watch online on iFILM. Tahar Rahim plays Nazaret, a blacksmith who loses his voice and his family when the Ottoman Empire drives its Armenians into the desert in 1915.

Nazaret barely survives the death marches that scatter his people across the Mesopotamian wastes, emerging mute and stripped of faith. Years later, a chance rumor reaches him: his twin daughters may still be alive. That single thread pulls him out of his ruined town of Mardin and onto a years-long trek — through the desert, across the ocean to Havana, and finally into the dust of North Dakota.

Closing Akin's loose trilogy of love, death and the devil, the film plays its tragedy on a sweeping, almost Western canvas. Rahim spends nearly the whole runtime silent, carrying Nazaret on his face alone — reason enough to seek this one out. Slow, heavy and unflinching, it's made for viewers who love big historical filmmaking. Stream The Cut (2014) online on iFILM.