Who is the real author of the film "The Endless Corridor"?

Many have seen the documentary film "The Endless Corridor" — a journalistic investigation into the Khojaly tragedy. According to the official version, the authors of the film are Lithuanians led by producer Andrius Brokas. However, this is not the case at all. The script for this film was written by Azerbaijanis, and most of the directing, producing and part of the filming was also done by them.

First things first

In 2010, as part of the "Justice for Khojaly" campaign, a decision was made to create a documentary film about the genocide in Khojaly. However, a condition was set: the work had to be done by foreigners so that Armenians could not claim that the film was biased due to the participation of Azerbaijanis. 

The young filmmaker Teymur Hajiyev was commissioned to write the script. Then the search for a film crew began. Initially, the British were invited, then the Dutch, but they were unable to "get into the subject".

The Lithuanians were third, but they also found the task too difficult (they could not find Khojaly on the map and understand where Armenians and Azerbaijanis lived). Nevertheless, the Azerbaijani side decided to work with the Lithuanians, with the support of local authors.

The first result was zero

The first version, presented by the Lithuanians after a year of work, was rejected by the client. The reason was a complete misunderstanding of the task at hand. Therefore, it was decided to remove the director, rewrite the script and assemble a new team, leaving only the Lithuanian producer Brokas and the cameraman. 

After that, the Baku team, represented by the author of these lines and Teymur Hajiyev, took over the directing. 

The second blow to the film came in March 2011, when the Lithuanians were detained at Yerevan airport and deported from Armenia. The reason was suspicion that they were working for Azerbaijan. This meant that filming at the scene of the events in Khojaly and interviews with Armenian heroes were cancelled, and the project itself was on the verge of failure.

Second attempt 

The situation was saved only thanks to the "Baku team," which essentially started filming from scratch. The script was changed by 80%, and new characters, archives, witnesses, and documents appeared.  The goal was to refute the three main arguments used by the Armenians to deny their involvement in the Khojaly massacre:

1. The killings took place outside Armenian-controlled territory;
2. The residents of Khojaly were given a corridor and left the town safely, and their deaths were the work of the Azerbaijanis themselves;
3. The 366th regiment did not take part in the operation to capture Khojaly.

These claims could only be refuted with irrefutable facts, preferably of Armenian origin. It was also necessary to find survivors of the tragedy.   

Valeh Huseynov was found earlier during a search among the residents of Khojaly, and the connection between Mehriban Bekirova and Victoria Ivleva only came to light thanks to the author of this article.  

"I was in Khojaly when it was captured," journalist Viktoria Ivleva told me when we met at an event in Germany. She said she was the only journalist in Khojaly on the eve of 25 February and learned about the impending attack. Ivleva entered Khojaly together with the Armenian military and described these events and photos in the newspaper Moskovskie Novosti in its 15 March 1992 issue. (Incidentally, many of her photos from Khojaly on 26-27 February have still not been published).

My personal acquaintance with Vika allowed me to find the second heroine of the film, Mehriban, a prisoner of war who was helped by Ivleva on that February night in 1992. Their meeting 20 years later became the emotional climax of the film.  

Another key moment is the interview with Georgy Vanyan, in which this Armenian peacemaker repents on behalf of the Armenians for the crimes in Khojaly and declares the need to punish those who committed these atrocities. I would like to note that Vanyan made these confessions in 2011 in Tbilisi, where he travelled at the request of the "Baku team". The Lithuanians were not present; the filming and interview were conducted by the author of this article.

Archives and footage in Armenia

The events of 25-26 February 1992 in facts and documents are a separate topic. Archival footage by military cameraman Seidag Movsumlu is invaluable material from a living witness to the tragedy.  Archival videos from two other Azerbaijani cameramen, Agasi Khunna and Bahadur Imanguliev, provided a complete picture of the events. All of this material was also collected thanks to the personal connections and efforts of the "Baku team." 

After the Lithuanians were denied entry to Yerevan, the question of filming in Armenia had to be resolved. The list of individuals (Levon Melik-Shakhnazaryan, Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan) and questions for them were compiled by the author of this article, and the filming was carried out by Georgian colleagues.

The confessions of Armenian heroes contradicted the facts. For example, Melik-Shahnazaryan's claims that the killings took place in Agdam were refuted by Seidag Movsumlu's footage, which showed the bodies of Khojaly residents in Askeran, an area controlled by Armenians. He recorded the bodies of Khojaly residents against the backdrop of the Askeran Fortress, as well as the collection and removal of bodies under the supervision of Armenian militants led by Vitaly Balasanyan. This was decisive evidence that the mass killings were committed in Armenian-controlled territory.   All this data was collected and systematised by the "Baku team", about which the Lithuanians had no idea. 

 Another of our cameramen, Agasi Khunn, recorded the shooting and capture of Khojaly residents as they attempted to escape from the Askeran district.

The participation of the 366th Russian regiment in the massacre is another key issue. Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan, who commanded the operation, claimed that there were no Russians there. However, the map of combat operations, which he himself compiled and showed in the film, refutes this. It shows the directions of the attack on the city and who commanded each direction. On the main direction - from the side of Hankandi (Stepanakert) - the commander is named "Zhenya, 2 BMP". But there was no one with that name among the participants in the operation (all of them are named in Melik-Shakhnazaryan's article "The Glorious Victory of the Armenian Army").  

 "Zhenya" is the commander of the 3rd battalion of the 366th regiment, Yevgeny Nabokikh. It was his BMPs that participated in the capture of Khojaly (later, the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan would include the names of Yevgeny Nabokikh and the commander of the 366th regiment, Yuri Zarvigorov, in the list of war criminals for the Khojaly massacre).

A matter of technique 

All that remained for the Lithuanians to do was to bring all these stories together, and for this purpose they found Lithuanian Richardas Lapaitis. Much of the film is presented as his work, which is absolutely not the case. To be fair, it must be acknowledged that the Lithuanians did a good job on the technical side – camera work, sound, editing, staged shots and post-production. But American producer Gerald Rafshoon also deserves considerable credit for this.

Such a project would have been impossible without serious financial support. I will leave the question of the source of funding behind the scenes, but it is not difficult to guess. Incidentally, this is the most expensive documentary film on the subject of Karabakh.

Why reveal all this? 

The reasons why the Azerbaijani filmmakers have not been named until now no longer exist – Karabakh and Khojaly have been liberated, the conflict has ended, and the film has fulfilled its ideological mission. The international community has been able to obtain objective information about the Khojaly tragedy. 

After September 2023, there is no longer any point in hiding the fact of who made this film. The time has come to name those who made this project possible.  The credits of the film "The Endless Corridor" do not mention the screenwriter (!). Two names should be there: Shain and Teymur Hajiyev. These same names should be listed alongside the names of the film's director and producer. (The Lithuanians only mentioned the name of the author of these lines as a consultant).

The cameramen Seidaga Movsumlu, Agasi Khunn and Bahadur Imanguliev have also been unjustly forgotten. Their unique archive footage played a key role in describing the tragedy. The documents, maps and facts used in the film come from the archives of the Turan agency.  

Unfortunately, Azerbaijan did not appreciate the contributions of its citizens in creating the best film about the Karabakh tragedy and the success of the "Justice for Khojaly" campaign.   The film received several awards at international festivals and played a significant role in shaping international public opinion about the Khojaly tragedy. 

One might get the impression that the author is motivated by resentment over unrecognised achievements, especially since much of the work was done virtually free of charge. However, it was possible and necessary to do it – out of love for one's country.