On October 12, the Cinema Club organised by the Student Youth Organization of Azerbaijan University of Languages (AUL) and supported by Azerbaijan Union of Filmmakers (AUF) hosted a screening of the feature film “The Tale of the Lone Pomegranate Tree” at AUF premises.
Narmin Khanbutayeva, Deputy Chair for External Affairs at the AUL Cinema Club, and Nazrin Yusifzadeh, Chair of the History and Patriotism Club at the AUL Student Youth Organization, spoke at the event and shared information about their activities. The speakers also emphasized that the primary goal of these film screenings is to promote Azerbaijani national cinema among young people and to honour the crew—screenwriters, directors, actors, artists, and composers—who worked on these films.
Film critic Sevda Sultanova, who also moderated the event, introduced the film to the audience:
“The screenplay for “The Tale of a Lone Pomegranate Tree” was based on the eponymous novel by writer Akram Aylisli. This novel is part of the “People and Trees” trilogy, which had a significant impact on Azerbaijani prose in the 1960s. The film script, which covers the period after World War II, was written by Russian screenwriter Roza Husnitdinova.
The director of “The Tale of a Lone Pomegranate Tree” is Shamil Mahmudbayov, whose other famous screen work on the theme of war, “Shared Bread,” is considered a cult film in our national cinema. Shamil Mahmudbayov is also the author of two war-themed feature films “The Adventures of the Violinist” and “Four Sundays,” although they are not as popular with a wider audience.
One of his specialties as a director was his excellent work with child actors. In “The Tale of a Lone Pomegranate Tree,” the main character is also a child. We look at the post-war period and the world of adults through the eyes of Sadig. Unfortunately, the performer of the role of Sadiq, Ruslan Nasirli, passed away early. He played in various films and was also a good voice actor.
The co-director of the film is Hasanagha Turabov, one of the master actors of theatre and cinema. Hasanagha Turabov also plays a supporting role in the film. The film’s art director, Kamil Najafzadeh, is one of the brightest figures of the Azerbaijani Art directing school. Cameraman Zaur Maharramov also worked on “The Last Night of Childhood,” “Birthday,” and other popular screen works.
Other roles in the film were played by professional actors such as Shukufa Yusupova, Najiba Huseynova, Rasim Balayev, Yashar Nuri, Hasan Abluj, well-known figures of our cinema.”
After the film screening, the moderator answered questions that interested the participants. A representative of the Cinema Club said that their activity plan included meetings with screenwriters and directors and organizing film screenings every weekend.
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