Film Festival Held in Former Molokan Chapel House

Baku / 23.05.19 / Turan: The Salaam Cinema Youth Public Association, which has become well-known for its struggle to preserve the historic building in the center of Baku (former Molokan Prayer House), holds IN-VISIBLE film festival in this building at 10 Suleyman Rustam Street on May 23-26. Other informal youth organizations joined the organization of the festival. The event is held with the organizational support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Azerbaijan.

As part of the festival, at 19:00 on May 23, the art exhibition "Woman with a Mustache. A man without a beard" will be opened. At 19.15 there will be a performance of theatrical production "The Voice of a Woman" performed by the theater ODA. At 20.00 the demonstration of the film "Girls" - the winner of the Cannes Film Festival (2018) by the Dutch director Lucas Horst will take place. At 22.30 a concert will begin. During the festival days, eight films will be shown and followed by discussions.

The documentary Women was shot by Azerbaijani filmmakers. All films are shown in Azerbaijan for the first time, as one of the Salaam Сinema activists Leyli Gafarova told Turan. "From the Youth Foundation, which is charged with determining the further status and fate of the building, they said that we could stay here for another two months," said Gafarova.

Another youth activist Ilkin Huseynov said that activists are waiting for the building to receive the status of a historical or architectural monument, protected by the state.

In February of this year, Salaam Cinema rented an abandoned building built in 1913. There were film screenings, exhibitions, and discussions on the subject of culture. In early May, the building"s owner, with the support of the police, tried to evict the activists. The young people, with the support of the public, defended the building by arranging round-the-clock watch.

The first Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva said on May 7 that the situation around the old building on Suleyman Rustam Street in Baku was taken under state control. -0-