Azerbaijani Hilal Baydarov’s drama will debut in competition.
Hong Kong-based sales firm Asian Shadows has picked up rights to Azerbaijani director Hilal Baydarov’s Sermon To The Fish, which is set to world premiere in Locarno Film Festival’s international competition.
It marks the fourth fiction feature by Baydarov, whose In Between Dying played in competition at Venice in 2020 and whose documentary When The Persimmons Grew won best documentary at Sarajevo in 2019.
The feature is a co-production between Azerbaijan, Mexico, Switzerland and Turkey. Baydarov’s Azerbaijan-based production company Ucqar Film and Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas’ Splendor Omnia Studios are among the main backers.
Hong Kong-based sales firm Asian Shadows has picked up rights to Azerbaijani director Hilal Baydarov’s Sermon To The Fish, which is set to world premiere in Locarno Film Festival’s international competition.
It marks the fourth fiction feature by Baydarov, whose In Between Dying played in competition at Venice in 2020 and whose documentary When The Persimmons Grew won best documentary at Sarajevo in 2019.
The feature is a co-production between Azerbaijan, Mexico, Switzerland and Turkey. Baydarov’s Azerbaijan-based production company Ucqar Film and Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas’ Splendor Omnia Studios are among the main backers.
- 7/6/2022
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
The existential road movie gets an offbeat, elliptical yet peculiarly compelling Transcaucasian makeover in director Hilal Baydarov’s second fiction feature, “In Between Dying.” Set against the striking, often purgatorially stark backdrop of Azerbaijan’s rural landscapes, with their striated mountains, autumn forests, fog-shrouded fields and silvery pebbled lakesides, it’s a film indebted to its influences. Baydarov was a student of Bela Tarr’s, although the additional imprints of Carlos Reygadas (who produces), Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Andrei Tarkovsky, with even a little Godardian absurdity thrown in for good measure, at least ensure this particular admixture eventually emerges as its own singular animal — in this case, a frequently glimpsed white horse, whose heroic associations are offset by its increasing dirtiness and apparent despondency.
The narrative eventually emerges as a kind of hero’s quest, which is surprising given the protagonist, Davud (Orkhan Iskandarli), initially seems very far from anyone’s idea of a hero.
The narrative eventually emerges as a kind of hero’s quest, which is surprising given the protagonist, Davud (Orkhan Iskandarli), initially seems very far from anyone’s idea of a hero.
- 9/12/2020
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
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