On October 22, the Azerbaijan Union of Filmmakers (AUF) organized the premiere of films by young Azerbaijani directors at the Nizami Cinema Centre.
The event, held under the title “New Generation, New Breath, New Perspective,” began with an engaging musical program. Moderator and film critic Sevda Sultanova opened the event with an introductory speech, announcing that starting that week, AUF will continue its traditional film screenings: “We are glad that the opening of the new season is taking place here, at the Nizami Cinema Centre. For this, we thank the leadership of the Nizami Cinema Centre, as well as the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
AUF Secretary and People’s Artist Hamida Omarova was invited to the stage. Congratulating the directors on the premiere, Hamida Omarova said: “I greet you on behalf of the Union of Filmmakers. I remember when I was studying at the Moscow Film Institute, film screenings used to be held twice a week, and we watched both Soviet and foreign films. I’m glad that the Union of Filmmakers carries out such an important activity. I hope that we can work together to create wonderful films and watch their premieres in this very hall.”
After a few brief speeches, the short films “It Is Quiet Here” by Novruz Hikmet, “The Red Colour of the Second Planet” by Azer Guliyev, “Two Days” by Teymur Gambarov, and “The Distance” by Daniel Guliyev were screened.
The audience enthusiastically received the films. After the screening, the moderator invited the directors to the stage. As Daniel Guliyev was attending a film festival in Germany, Murad Shukurlu, the film’s lead actor, took his place on stage.
The moderator noted that apart from “The Distance,” the other three films had a war theme. She asked whether you drew inspiration from real-life stories or relied solely on his imagination and general observations. Teymur Gambarov the director of “Two Days,” replied on his behalf that he wrote the story before the war, but his friends suggested he could incorporate the war theme into the script, given the upcoming Great Return pitching project dedicated to the Second Karabakh War: “Then I started thinking about it. Interestingly, when I showed the film to my father, he revealed that a similar incident happened to him when he was drafted to fight in the First Karabakh War and there was no news from him for some time. Some aspects of the film are personal, but I prefer not to discuss them.”
“It Is Quiet Here,” directed by Novruz Hikmet, is about the war in Ukraine. Hikmet, who has lived in Ukraine for 15 years, expressed gratitude for the film’s premiere in Azerbaijan and told the audience: “The war in Ukraine is still ongoing, and it has been a long war. This film was shot in the early months of the war, and I wouldn’t make the same film today. I would have taken a slightly different approach. People were sharing their experiences of the war with us. We based our film on a real couple. What you see in the film is a combination of my own experiences and those of my friends. Our main goal was to explore the possibility of not talking about war during wartime. In general, everything loses its appeal during war. There’s no dialogue, love, passion, joy, or enthusiasm. Everything fades away.” Novruz Hikmet also mentioned that while working on the film, he got his inspiration from films by Ceylan and Pedro Costa.
In response to the moderator’s question, “Why were you chosen for the lead role?”, Murad Shukurlu stated that Daniel had audition for this film: “They said they were looking for an actor of a certain age who would fit the character. They invited me to the casting, we had a couple of test shoots, and I was given the role.”
Responding to the question on casting criteria, Teymur Gambarov said: “Well, casting is a big word. I simply looked for the right people. I knew that Malak Bayramli would be perfect for the young girl’s role. The mother’s role was still open. Then I saw Tarana Valiyeva on a photographer friend’s social media page. I contacted her and we agreed. This is the second time that I decide on actors before writing the script.”
Murad Shukurlu, the lead actor in Daniel Guliyev’s film “The Distance,” is also a film director himself. When asked about his collaboration with Daniel Guliyev, he commented that the low budget limited opportunities for rehearsal and extensive preparation. “I noticed that Daniel Guliyev prefers a more hands-on approach,” he said. “He gave me freedom to interpret certain scenes but had specific requirements for others. I asked some questions about the story, but he encouraged me to approach it from an actor’s perspective, rather than a director’s.”
When asked about choosing the tunnel as a filming location, Azer Guliyev, director of “The Red Colour of the Second Planet,” explained that there wasn’t a specific reason. “We simply wanted to film there, so we did,” he said. “We used a thermal imager to create the red background, and the scene with the soldiers was improvised.”
The event was held in partnership with the Nizami Cinema Centre.
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