Rustam Vakilov becomes first Azerbaijani director to make Hollywood feature film

For the first time in Hollywood history, an Azerbaijani director, Rustam Vakilov, has made a feature film.

The premiere of his debut work, "Hell Hath No Fury" (2025), an exciting thriller, took place successfully in Los Angeles. The film will soon be released in theaters across the United States and Europe.

The film's protagonist, Aiden (Miles Crawford), is a psychiatrist who has lost his newborn child and is teetering on the brink of family collapse and his own reality. It seems things can't get worse… but the story is just beginning. One of his patients is brutally murdered, and a mysterious new employee appears at the psychiatric clinic. Aiden will have to fight not only for his marriage but also for the institution itself, which may be permanently shut down. The film turns into a tense play of light and shadow, where the boundaries between reality and the supernatural blur. It's not just a thriller – it's a psychological whirlwind that captivates the audience until the last frame.

The screenplay was written by Dennis J. Wilder. The soundtrack to the film is another point of pride. The composer is Azerbaijani musician Mikail Vakilov, and the song was performed by Nazila Aliyeva, a finalist of Bak? Pay?z? 2023. She became the first Azerbaijani singer whose voice featured in a Hollywood film.

Rustam Vakilov is a graduate of the Cinematic Arts Faculty at the University of Southern California (USC). His parents, Sevinj Karimova and Mikail Vakilov, have lived and worked in Los Angeles and New York for nearly 30 years.

Sevinj Karimova is the first woman in Azerbaijan to work as a clip maker. She directed music videos, TV programs, and films that were broadcast throughout the Soviet Union, watched by around 200 million viewers.

She is the director and producer of the legendary group Karvan and also the creator and director of Bak? Pay?z?, a popular program from the 1980s. Mikail Vakilov is the author of the hits for Karvan.

By the way, their project in May 2022, the grand evening of the mega-popular 1980s group Karvan, titled The Legend Returns, at the Heydar Aliyev Palace sparked great public interest. In 2023, they also held the contest Bak? Pay?z? 2023. 35 Years Later.