Ah, forbidden love. We hate to love it, or love to hate it. Regardless, it’s one of the most common tropes portrayed in romance novels, movies, and art. Particularly, there’s one that’s located on the shore of Batumi Boulevard in Georgia (the country, not the state): a moving sculpture inspired by the story Ali and Nino, written by Kurban Said.

Bewarned: spoilers ahead!!

The story is set in 1914, in Baku’s Old City of Ichari Shahar, just before the Bolshevik Revolution. 

Ali Khan Shirvanshir is an eighteen year old boy and a descendent of an noble Muslim family located in Baku, Azerbaijini. Though he has been raised by his family’s strong allegiance to Islamnic faith, Ali has been exposed to western values through attending a Russian school for boys. He has also fallen in love with Nino Kipiani, a seventeen year old Georgian princess with Christian ideals. Though Nino also comes from a respectable family, their cultural differences play a huge role in separating them from the start.

As a graduation present for finishing school, Ali’s father grants him three wishes. (This isn’t an Aladdin-retelling- I pinky promise.)

 

Wish 1: Ali wants to spend the summer in Susha, Karabakh by himself, which is (totally coincidentally, not), where Nino’s family is also spending the holiday.

There, the two agree that they want to get married as soon as Nino graduates, but they each want to raise their children with their own respective religions. This inevitably creates a slight strain of tension on them, since they are both very passionate about their own cultural identities.

While the two are vacationing in Susha, World War I breaks out. Because of Karabakh’s geographic insecurity, Ali and Nino both return to Baku. However, in Azerbaijini, there is an unwavering expectation for men to enlist in the military to help fight in the war. 

 

Wish 2: Ali wants to be allowed to draw his sword when he wants to. 

Though his father agrees to this wish, it is evident that Ali is expected to eventually help fight. Instead, Ali and Nino ask their parents’ for consent in their marriage. Much to their surprise, Ali’s father grants his permission, but with the stipulation that Nino must first finish school before they get married, and that she will not actively try to bring her Christian faith into their home. 

Nino’s father, on the other hand, has a different stipulation for the two: they can’t get married until the war itself ends. The two, hoping to get married sooner, reach out to one of Ali’s friends (Nachararyan) to broker a deal between the two families. Eventually, Nino’s father agrees that Ali and Nino can get married as soon as Nino finishes school.

Almost a year later, Nino finally finishes school, and the two travel to Tbilisi in Georgia to finalize arrangements for their wedding. However, Georgia soon becomes a dangerous ground for battle and violence. Ali’s friend from earlier, Nachararyan, confesses that he has loved Nino all along, and under the pretense of recusing her, abducts her and takes her to a safer country.

Ali eventually finds his (ex) friend and stabs him to death. He runs away, knowing that he will be punished for his actions. Months later, when Nino ends up finally finding Ali, they finally get married and live happily ever after. Until:

The Bolsheviks seize control of Baku, and Ali and Nino are forced to flee once again. Once Azerbaijan has been established as an independent republic, Ali and Nino return to their home. When the Red Army invades Azerbaijan, Ali chooses to finally fulfill the promise he made to his father in return for his second wish, and stay to fight for his country. On the other hand, Nino flees to her homeland of Georgia with their newborn child. While they are apart, Ali dies in war. 

 

Wish 3: Ali and Nino end up together.

This wish is mine. Obviously, it’s not granted in the story, but we can see this exemplified (briefly) in one other area– the aforementioned sculpture. Each of the two figures (one of Ali, the other of Nino) constantly move towards each other, meeting for a brief kiss, but never truly connecting. 

~ The End ~

 

 

** There’s a movie adaptation of this story too, if you’re interested in watching how the story unfolds in a much more coherent manner than my storytelling – check out a review by the New York Times here.