Set on the backdrop of the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the First World War, The Promise plays like a grand melodrama in the vein of David Lean (Christian Bale also evokes Warren Beatty’s Reds, as an inspiration for  Terry George’s epic love story). The HFPA’s Paz Mata and Ramzi Malouki spoke to Bale and co-star Charlotte Le Bon about the film, which tells the story of the forgotten Armenian Genocide and its significance today.