Days of Azerbaijani Cinema to be held in Uzbekistan

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

The Days of Azerbaijani Cinema will be held in Uzbekistan From September 23 to October 2.

The event is co-organized by the Azerbaijan Ministry of Culture, Uzbekkino Agency and the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center in Tashkent, Trend Life reported. The event will be held in the cities of Tashkent, Almalyk and Samarkand.

The opening ceremony will take place in Alisher Navoi Cinema Palace in Tashkent on September 23.

The event will be attended by cultural figures, diplomats, cinema experts, students of higher educational institutions, representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora, journalists and others.

Spectators will be presented with feature films directed by Mirbala Salimli ("Red Garden"), Ilgar Najaf  ("Pomegranate Orchard"), Shamil Aliyev ("Steppe Man"), Rafig Aliyev and Javid Tevekkul ("Lesson") as well as documentaries by Natalya Zavoznodenko  ("Baku in the Mirror of Centuries"), Adil Azay ("Sage who remained in Secret") and Valentina Gurkalenko ("Huseyn Khan Nakhchivansky. The Returning").

Azerbaijan has a rich cinema history and has significantly contributed to the international film industry.

Today, the Azerbaijani cinema has come to be an internationally recognized modern art enjoying a huge popularity and recognition at international film festivals, which frequently award the national films. Over the past years, more than 300 films and 1,200 documentaries, as well as hundreds of cartoons were filmed in Azerbaijan.

Shortly after the invention of cinematography in 1895, Russian photographer and cameraman Alexandre Michon began shooting motion pictures that depicted everyday life in Baku. 

The first short, silent film of Azerbaijan "You are caught" was shown in Baku on August 2, 1898. The audience witnessed a historical event - the birth of Azerbaijani cinematography.

To honor this historical day, the national leader Heydar Aliyev signed an order on December 18, 2000, to declare August 2 as professional holiday of cinema workers – Day of Azerbaijani Cinema.