In this series, Faig identifies each of his three works with an important medieval figure connected to his homeland, Azerbaijan. Each figure is a creative disruptor, an innovator, someone who shakes things up, and yet, is a product of his own cultural geography.
A picture by an Anadolu Agency reporter based in the Asia-Caucasia region won the "Visitors' favorite photograph" award in a contest in Azerbaijan on Saturday.
The Azerbaijani village of Lahij lies in a gorge of the Nial mountains, about a three-hour drive west of Baku. Its narrow cobbled streets, houses made of stones from the river, workshops and stores look just as they did centuries ago.
Paris-based outfit MPM Premium has boarded the world sales of Hilal Baydarov’s new feature Crane Lantern, Cineuropa has learned.
What we do and should call classical music and what "classical" means in general are the topics that came up in my conversations with friends and acquaintances at least twice in the past few months.
Banality is tiring. Especially when you are young, you often get tired of hearing the same idea, naturally reacting to it with either contempt or irony. This is understandable: frequent repetition of an idea cheapens it to some extent, making it trite and commonplace, and, like all ordinary things we are accustomed to, it eventually stops attracting our attention.
Any critical artist with the pretense of actualizing a strong critical statement but fated to cultural production in the framework of legitimate art institutions finds him-herself in a tricky situation. He is caught in the pincers of a "two-fold impossibility."
The ancient Azerbaijani city of Gabala played host once again to its famous music festival this summer, after a year’s hiatus due to the pandemic.
He befriended the private secretary of the then head of the Soviet Azerbaijani government and even painted a portrait of him. Musayev recalled this much later, in the autobiographical novel The Land of the Last Knights published in Munich in 1936.
What can be easier than listening to music? Scratching your head? Even then, you would have to use your hand, whereas you don't have to move a finger to listen to music. But, as is often the case, experts and scientists disagree. According to them, listening to music is a much more complex process than it seems.
Play is one of the oldest and most basic human needs. With the advent of new technologies, this need revealed human instincts. According to scientists, the connection between play and humans is older than art and culture, and given that our instincts are similar to those of animals, we can conclude that play is even older than human history.
Ancient Greek myths as a narrative that took shape in the pre-literate era has a special built-in device, through which anyone who rewrites or retells this myth should first reveal their location in time and space. And, retelling the content of the Pandora myth here now, we too should identify the position of the narrator and his—my—audience. But why do we think it important to learn details of the Pandora myth in the first place?
No form of music tugs at the heartstrings of Azerbaijanis more than the sound of Mugham. This centuries-old musical tradition draws on folklore and oral histories passed down from generation to generation, creating a unique and ‘melancholy’ sound.
There is this scene in Pasolini's Medea (1969): Medea watches Jason's sleeping body. The camera slowly slides down Jason's bare chest. The viewer sees the man's naked body through Medea's eyes. However, there is a contrast between the lustful, passionate energy conveyed by the camera and Medea's ruthful, impassive gaze: this is the director's point of view, not Medea's…
The 1940s and 1950s are the time when the film noir (“dark film”) genre took flight in American cinema. There was a lot in the backdrop of those films: the Great Depression of the 1930s, World War II, the turbulent, anxious, unreliable, treacherous atmosphere of the Cold War, German expressionism, social problems, gangster films, the traumatized psyche of men returning from the war, Auschwitz, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the changing traditional role of women in society…
War is often an amalgamation of various objectives. One of the core aims of the occupation of Azerbaijani territory by Armenia was the suppression of the identity of the occupied population and territory. Thus, this warfare affected not only people but also the collective narrative of their environments, history, culture, and identity.
In 2002, the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation published a report on the circumstances and causes of the Srebrenica massacre. According to the authors of the report, sending the Dutch to Bosnia was a misguided decision. The Dutch government resigned in April 2002 amid heated debate over the report.
The Art of Carpet — Evolution of Meanings Exhibition from the collection of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum opened in the Manege Exhibition Hall on 8 July. It presents both classic works of carpet art of the turn of the 19-20 centuries and modern author's carpets by Chingiz Babayev.
Baku is famous for its controversial building craze, oil and gas boom, and now Eurovision 2012. But could there be more to this swanky yet ancient city?
From what angle Israeli cinema depicts the conflict with the Arab countries, how and at what level it builds communication with the Arabs does not only show the Israelis’ attitude to the conflict. This is perhaps an indication that Israeli society has not lost its sense of justice, its ability to look critically at itself and its past, an indication of its openness to discussion.
The feature film Garegin Nzhdeh is an exoneration of the Armenians for the Khojaly genocide, the terror of Ganja and Barda, and their urge to kill every single Turk in the world.
On 14 June, the Delegation of the European Union to Azerbaijan launched a Euro Film Fest, which will take place online until 29 June.
Azerbaijan’s Country Life Vlog is not for the squeamish. You won’t find Ina Garten tackling some of the show’s recipes and Bobby Flay would surely lose a smackdown with Aziza the cook.
In 2020, Azerbaijan Tourism Board (ATB) launched the new campaign, “Macəra Yaxındadır” — translating to “Adventure is Near” — encouraging Azerbaijanis themselves to discover the rich and diverse offerings of