Asif Kapadia’s “epic love story” Ali & Nino which premiered earlier this year at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival will be released in the US via IFC Films.

The epic love story Ali & Nino, is one of the most original works of Twentieth Century literature. Since its initial publication in 1937, the acclaimed novel has been translated into 33 languages worldwide with nearly 100 reprints.

The film is directed by Asif Kapadia, who won the best documentary Oscar for Amy, and the cast includes Maria Valverde (Exodus: Gods and Kings), Adam Bakri (Omar), Mandy Patinkin (Homeland) and Connie Nielsen (Gladiator, Wonder Woman).

Ali Khan and Nino Kipiani live in Baku, the cosmopolitan, oil-rich capital of Azerbaijan, which, at the beginning of the twentieth century, is a melting pot of different cultures. Ali is a Muslim, with his warrior ancestors’ passion for the desert; and Nino is a Christian Georgian girl with sophisticated European ways. The two have loved each other since childhood and Ali is determined that he will marry Nino, despite their cultural differences, but there is not only the obstacle of their different religions and parental consent to overcome. The First World War breaks out and Baku’s oil becomes the focus of Russia’s vie for power. As the war plays out and control of the Caucuses changes hands, Ali and Nino find themselves swept up in Azerbaijan’s fight for independence.