Beast

Interrogation

February 1979 •Azerbaijani

The investigator Seyfi Ganiyev runs the case of an illegal mercery shop's head Murad Abiyev, who confessed in embezzlement of one million rubles from public funds. Abiyev is also accused of the murder of an underage girls that occurred in Riga shortly after Abiyev saw her. He denies his guilt, but does not name the perpetrators though he knows them, despite the fact that he is facing the death penalty. The investigator understands that some high-ranking officials stand behind Abiyev, but he has no proof. Ganiyev seeks to obtain from the prisoner the whole truth to bring the criminals to justice.

I Loved You More than Life

December 1985 •Azerbaijani

Biopic about general Hazi Aslanov, who died fighting Germans in WW2.

The Scoundrel

May 1988 •Azerbaijani

Film exposes the corruption and the decadence of the late Soviet bureaucracy in Azerbaijan SSR through the eyes of a naive Azerbaijani adult man, Hatem.

On Distant Shores

August 1958 •Azerbaijani

The film portrays the life of the legendary Azerbaijani guerrilla of the Second World War Mehdi Huseynzadeh, who fought the Nazi forces in the present-day Italy and Slovenia, hence the film's name On distant shores referring to the Adriatic Sea.

The Labour and Rose

December 1962 •Azerbaijani

The film is about famous Chechen ballet and folk dancer Mahmud Essembayev's life.

Matteo Falcone

January 1960 •Azerbaijani

Matteo Falcone is an Azerbaijani short drama film based on Prosper Merimée's like-named story from 1829. Matteo Falcone is a successful Corsican, who lives with his wife Giuseppa and 10-year-old son Fortunato. One day he leaves home with Giuseppa, leaving Fortunato alone.

Down the River

December 2014 •Azerbaijani

Young Ruslan rows for a team coached by his father Ali, who places many demands upon his son and is continually dissatisfied by his performance. But when tragedy strikes, his father is overcome with emotions he doesn’t know how to deal with. Debut director Asif Rustamov treats the heavy topic with remarkable subtlety and discretion, emphasizing the characters’ carefully elaborated psychology.

The Bat

January 1995 •Azerbaijani

In a Azerbaijan, in the beginning of this century, the first films made in the history of cinema are shown.The characters meet each other in a room. Three characters who will witness the linking up of their destinies through their common love for this new captivating art.

Nabat

August 2014 •Azerbaijani

The story is set during an upsurge in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and revolves around an old, sick ex-forestry worker and his wife Nabat, whose son has died in battle.

Tahmina

May 1993 •Azerbaijani

This Azerbaijani romantic drama depicts the love affair between Zaur, a man from an affluent family, and Tahmina, a divorced woman doing her best to survive in a conservative society.

Another Life

February 1987 •Azerbaijani

Psychological drama about a university dean who leads a double life.

The Last Mountain Pass

July 1971 •Azerbaijani

Based on a novel by Farman Karimzade, the movie shows the life in an Azerbaijani village under the Soviet rule in 1930s. Here two former "beys" (land owners) are opposing each other. One is loyal to the ideology of the past and can't reconcile himself to the new power, to second rejects the past and accepts the power of the Bolsheviks, believing that it will establish justice.

The Devil under the Windshield

July 1988 •Azerbaijani

A journalist is investigating a group of poachers who are illegally selling the huge amounts of fish

You Can't Take an Island with You

September 1980 •Azerbaijani

A young girl is trying to save an island which is endangered by nearby construction.

Pomegranate Orchard

July 2017 •Azerbaijani

Inspired by Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, the film follows a prodigal son who returns after 12 years. His reappearance at the family home in rural Azerbaijan significantly alters their way of life.

From Two Worlds as a Keepsake

January 2012 •English

In Soviet Azerbaijan, a divorced Armenian couple fights over the custody of their daughter, Ashen. Stolen from one parent to another, Ashen's guardians are tragically killed in the bloody war surrounding them. Will the arrival of a new savior finally bring Ashen freedom? Official selection of the Global Lens Collection presented by the Global Film Initiative.

The Hostage

January 2005 •Azerbaijani

During the late 1980s and early 1990s the Armenian minority in Nagorono-Karabakh attempted to break away from Azerbaijan, one of the former Soviet republics. Overnight these former neighbors became enemies, and simple village folk were suddenly made hostages in a complex power game. One of the Azerbaijani villages right on the border is home to the family of the peasant farmer Kerim, who has just been captured by the Armenians. The village council decides to take an Armenian in order to arrange a hostage exchange. They imprison the wounded man in the barn next to Kerim's house, where his wife and three children desperately await the husband's return. The captive from the other side of the border finds himself in exactly the same situation - he, too, has three children, he finds it hard to scrape a living together, he has never done anything to harm anyone and, like Kerim, he just wants to go back home. But life in Karabakh is far more complex now. Blood calls for blood.

Four Sundays

November 1974 •Azerbaijani

After the novelette of the same name of Huseyn Abbaszadeh. The film is about friends' meeting who fought together as a partisans in Belorussian detached force.

The Boys of Our Yard

July 1973 •Azerbaijani

The film is about the yard boys getting a little older and thinking about their independent lifes.

The Strange Man

November 1979 •Azerbaijani