Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

A film by the famous Azerbaijani artist Ogtay Mirgasimov titled "To die avenged. The letters from the past" won the "Best Direction of Full-length Feature Film" prize at the tenth International Festival of Muslim Cinema.

The prize was given jointly to "To die avenged. The letters from the past" and "The last winter" by Iranian director Salem Salavati.

Receiving the award, Mirgasimov thanked the festival organizers, jury members and the head of Tatarstan in 10 languages, including German, Arabic and Tatar.

Commissioned by the Culture and Tourism Ministry of Azerbaijan, the film was shot by the film studio "Azerbaijanfilm."

The film was written and directed by Ogtay Mirgasimov. Its operator was Nikolay Ivasiv, the artist, Vaja Chalaganiya, and the composer, Elmar Fel.

The episodes were shot in three countries: Azerbaijan, Georgia and Germany. It took about three years to make the movie. It combines Azerbaijan, Georgia and Germany geographically and historically from 1941 till now.

The film depicts the life of German colonists, who moved to Azerbaijan in early twentieth century. The film transfers the spectators from past to present days. The story has very deep moral sense and touches on the tragic events faced by German population of Azerbaijan in those years.

The film project brought together film makers from Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany and Israel.

Azerbaijan's famous actors took part in the film production. They are as follows: Ramiz Azizbeyli, Ayan Mirkasimova, Gurban Ismailov, Natalya Sharovskaya, Fuzuli Huseynov, Sabir Mammadov, from Georgia Giya Japaridze, Revaz Tvalkviladze, Georgi Japaridze, Levan Bochorishvili, Toma Bulashvili, from Germany Ilrich Rechenbach, Ielter Hallervorden, Ekaterina Schmidt, Michael Shvartsmayer and Heinz Kruckeberg.

The festival was held in Kazan from September 5 to 11. The awarding ceremony took place at Piramida centre and, traditionally, began with the celebrities walking on the red carpet.

This year, 50 films from 22 countries were included in the competition section.

The main purpose of the festival is enhancing cooperation between the Turkic people to preserve, develop and transmit common material and cultural heritage of Turkic people.