Arquivo / 49ª mostra

During the First World War, the Young Turks Party orders the massacre of the Armenians. All the males in the Avakian family are slaughtered, while the females, including proud, headstrong Nunik, are led into the desert, where they are doomed to perish. But Nazim, a member of the Turkish "Confraternity of Beggars", is plotting to save them. One night, a horse-drawn carriage with a false bottom arrives to take them away, only the Turkish guards grow suspicious. To distract them, Nunik runs out into the centre of the camp and begins singing an Armenian song. As the commander orders that she be killed, her eyes catch those of Youssouf, a Turkish soldier who has fallen in love with her. He has promised that he will never let her be tortured, and so, as the rest of her family escapes, he makes sure that Nunik dies a quick, merciful death.