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The Promise

The Promise

Movie · 2016 · 15 people

The last years of the Ottoman Empire, just before and during the Armenian genocide, form the backdrop of The Promise, a 2016 epic American historical drama with Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon and Christian Bale in the leads. Terry George directed it and wrote the screenplay with Robin Swicord. The 132-minute film was shot by Javier Aguirresarobe and produced by Mike Medavoy, Eric Esrailian, Ralph Winter and William Horberg.

At its center is a love triangle: Mikael (Isaac), a medical student from the Armenian village of Sirun; Ana (Le Bon), an Armenian-born artist raised in France; and Chris Myers (Bale), an American journalist living in Paris. Their entanglement unfolds amid the empire's collapse and the massacres around them. Parts were shot in Spain, including Águilas and Albarracín.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2016, and Open Road Films released it in the US on April 21, 2017, on the 102nd anniversary of the week the genocide began. Reviews were mixed and it grossed only $12 million against a budget of about $90 million. The studio said it aimed to draw attention to the story, not make money. Its song 'The Promise' was Chris Cornell's final single.

DirectorTerry George
Production companySurvival Pictures

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Cast

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Numan Acar Numan Acar Film actor · 52 years old Mustafa Kevork Malikyan Kevork Malikyan Actor · 83 years old Vartan Boghosian Oscar Isaac Charlotte Le Bon Christian Bale Marwan Kenzari Shohreh Aghdashloo Angela Sarafyan Daniel Giménez Cacho Tom Hollander Yigal Naor Tamer Hassan Rade Šerbedžija Alicia Borrachero Abel Folk

Also in the cast: Jean Reno

Titles sharing this cast

Through different eyes

AI-assisted editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives. They are not reader reviews; those are below.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The Promise openly says it was made to raise awareness rather than money, and timing its US release to the anniversary of the week the genocide began makes the same point. So it has to be read not only as a film but as a memory project. A gross of $12 million against a budget of around $90 million suggests that great historical tragedies struggle to reach a wide audience even when packaged as a mainstream love story. For anyone interested in the many cultures of the late Ottoman Empire, and in the threads that ran from an Anatolian village to Paris, it is a film that starts a discussion.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Terry George's film deliberately adopts the mold of the classic Hollywood epic: broad scale, big frames built by Javier Aguirresarobe's cinematography, and a love triangle set down in the middle of history. That is exactly where the trouble starts. The more of the film goes to the emotional knot between Mikael, Ana and Chris, the more the historical catastrophe behind them risks becoming scenery for melodrama. The script tries to carry a romance and a work of witness at once, and each weakens the other. Small wonder the critical response was mixed. Careful as craft, undecided as drama.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humor and heart.

A heavy historical drama about the collapse of an empire and the massacres around it. This is not a film to watch with children. If teenagers with an interest in history want to see it, it is better to watch it with adults and talk about it afterwards. The love story softens things a little, but the real subject is very harsh, and that weight is there from start to finish.

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