house. It is a happy period. But the Turks are forced to make peace and withdraw, and their place is taken by a British occupation (and protection) force. The Republic still exists and Ali and Nino, who both speak English, serve as hosts for government events. On her own secret initiative, Nino arranges for them to be posted to the embassy in Paris, but Ali cannot bear to leave Baku, and she yields to him and apologises. She gives birth to a daughter. The war has ended, and the British troops are going to be withdrawn. The Russians are pressing again. In the hot weather, Ali, Nino, and the baby go to his estate near the Azerbaijani town of Ganja. They cut themselves off from news and events and are very happy. But the news comes: the Russians have taken Baku, and Ganja is coming under attack by a large force. Nino flees to Georgia with their daughter, but Ali refuses to leave. He is killed defending the town. (The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic fell in 1920 and the country became part of the Soviet Union.) Art, theater, and film related to Ali and Nino In 1998 Hans de Weers of Amsterdam-based Egmond Film & Television, sought to find American partners for a film adaptation of Ali & Nino, which was to be shot in English and written by Academy Award-winning Azerbaijani screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov. De Weers was reported to have "pieced together 30% of the $8 million budget from the Netherlands and Azerbaijan." In 2004 the Dutch film company Zeppers Film & TV, in a coproduction with NPS, released a 90-minute documentary by Dutch director Jos de Putter entitled Alias Kurban Said. The film examines the disagreements over the novel's authorship. Variety called it a "Magnificent historical whodunit, wherein crumbling photographs, yellowing documents, and forgotten reels of 35 mm film are invested with tremendous evocative power." The film shows documentary evidence that Abraham Nussimbaum was a proprietor of oil wells sold to the Nobel firm in 1913. The film was an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival, the International Film Festival, Rotterdam, and the 2005 Netherlands Film Festival. Its music won the prize for Best Music at the Netherlands Film Festival. Ali and Nino was adapted as a play at the Baku Municipal Theater in 2007. The Azerbaijani theater company that staged it in 2007 also performed the play