National film to be screened in St. Petersburg

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

"Salt, Pepper to Taste", a film by Azerbaijani director Teymur Hajiyev, has been included in the competition program of the 29th Message to Man International Documentary, Short, and Animated Film Festival.

The festival will be held from September 14 to 21 in St. Petersburg, Russia, Trend Life reported.

The film of the Azerbaijani director is presented in the "Short Feature Films" category of the international competitive program.

"Salt, Pepper to Taste" tells a story about a widow and her two children. They live under one roof, but they are divided. Some of them need to try to change their lives for the better, but no one is willing to share their pain.

Before coming into the cinema industry, Teymur Hajiyev worked as marketing director within various commercial entities in Azerbaijan. In 2013, he established FIL Production, which up to now produced more than a dozen short films, with four of them having an international festival presence.

In the same year, Hajiyev finished his first short film "The Wound", which was premiered at Palm Springs ShortFest (the U.S.) and was admitted to the Locarno Summer Academy.

In 2016, Hajiyev’s second feature short film "Shanghai, Baku" was premiered at Tampere Film Festival (Finland).

In 2018, he completed his third short film "Salt, Pepper to Taste", premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019.

Message to Man International Documentary, Short, and Animated Film Festival is a reflection of the various influences on our lives, an understanding of reality by means of independent cinema. Since 2011, in addition to international and national competitions, the festival program has included an experimental film contest called "In Silico".

Message to Man Festival started in St. Petersburg in 1989. The festival was established by documentary filmmaker Michael Litvyakov, who is now the honorary president.

Since 2010, Alexei Uchitel has acted as president of the festival. He is the director of documentary and feature films.

In 2019, directors from 98 countries sent their film messages to the festival’s qualifying round. The commission selected 69 films. Some 36 films from 24 countries were selected for the international competition, and 9 films were presented in the "Short Feature Films" category.

The layout of the festival, the participants and the competition, which combines documentary, animated and short feature films – this is what makes Message to Man different from many other film events in Russia.

The festival program traditionally represents different genres, styles and directing methods, which means that the viewer can see both classical approaches and daring visual experiments.