Belarusian Cinema Days kick off in Baku

Laman Ismayilova

Belarusian Cinema Days have kicked off at Nizami Cinema Centre as part of Belarus Culture Days.

Cultural and public figures from both countries participated in the opening ceremony, Azernews reports.

The acting director of the Azerbaijan Film Cinema Agency, Orkhan Fikratoglu, gave a speech and evaluated the cinema days as a significant cultural event.

In his speech, Orkhan Fikratoglu noted that Belarusian cultural values will be demonstrated to the Azerbaijani audience through cinematography.

Belarusfilm has a hundred-year tradition, and the films filmed in this studio have always been met with great interest. It is also planned to present Azerbaijani films in Belarus in this form.

The general director of the Belarusfilm Studio, Yuri Aleksey, shared his impressions about the film days. He informed about the films that will be presented during the Belarusian Cinema Days.

"We have brought four films for the Azerbaijani audience-two of them are fiction and two are documentaries. We want to show our roots, traditions, and culture through cinema. I am sure that the Azerbaijani audience will be interested in it," said the general director.

He pointed out that issues of cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of cinema are also planned. In this regard, negotiations are ongoing between the institution headed by him and the Azerbaijani side, and an agreement on joint cooperation will be signed in the future.

Yuri Aleksey stressed the importance of developing cultural cooperation between Belarus and Azerbaijan.

After the speeches, there was a screening of the drama "List of Waiting" (2023), filmed by A. Yefremov.

Note that the Belarusian Cultural Days in Baku feature a number of events, including film screenings, exhibitions, and a round table.

The exhibition titled "Belarus through the eyes of artists" is scheduled for April 2. Belarusian artists Anton Vyrvo, Anna Kononova, Gleb Otchik, Anna Sadovskaya, and Vladimir Urodnich will showcase their art pieces as part of the exhibition.

On the same day, Nizami Cinema Centre will be screening Yevgeny Setko's documentary "Perezvon," which tells about the burned Belarusian villages during the Great Patriotic War.