Asif Rustamov's film to be screened in Russia

Asif Rustamov's film "Cold As Marble" will be screened at Arctic Open International Film Festival, to be held in Arkhangelsk, Russia, on December 7-13.

Co-produced by Azerbaijan and France, by Azerbaycanfilm, ?TV, Baku Media Centre, and Arizona Films (France), the film is included in the full-length films section of the festival, Azernews reports.

The plot of the movie is about the man of the couple, played by Elshan Asgarov, who is actually a failed artist, potentially owing to his blindness in one eye, so he has to work as a gravestone engraver, specialising in portraits of the deceased. Another peculiar thing about him is his habit of avoiding the bedroom in his modest house, even when his married girlfriend (Natavan Abbasli) visits him.

His routine changes one day when he finds an unexpected visitor who has broken into the house – his own father (Gurban Ismayilov, the winner of the Best Actor Award at the festival), who is supposed to be serving a prison sentence. The dad keeps berating the son, shouting homophobic slurs at him and trying to steer his life to bring it more into line with his own hustle schemes. However, unlike other people, the son knows his father’s dark secret and why he was imprisoned in the first place, and the girlfriend may have a scheme of her own that can be brought to fruition only with the help of a criminal. It seems that tragedy might repeat itself in yet another cycle.

The main producer of the film is Arzu Aliyeva, the screenwriters are Asif Rustamov and his Dutch colleague Roelof Jan Minneboo. director Asif Rustamov, production operators Oktay Namazov and Adil Abbasov, and production designer Rafig Nasirov. The producers are Fariz Ahmadov, Orman Aliyev, and Guillaume de Seille, and the creative producer is Irada Bagirzade. Elshan Asgarov, Natavan Abbasli, and People's Artist Gurban Ismayilov co-starred in the movie.

Cold As Marble is Asif Rustamov's second full-length work. The cinema work had its world premiere in November 2022 at the POFF Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, where it was awarded in the category of "Best Actor" (Gurban Ismayilov). Besides, the movie was awarded with "Best Director" (Asif Rustamov) at the 16th Eurasia International Film Festival in Almaty and the main prize of the jury at the 29th International Festival of Asian Films (Festival International des Cinémas d'Asie) held in Vesoul, France.

Asif Rustamov's film has been included in the main competition program of the 33rd International Cottbus Film Festival. The film festival will be held on November 7–12 in Cottbus, Germany.