Movie about Novruzali Mammadov

Baku / 09.03.18 / Turan: A movie about Novruzali Mammadov entitled "The tragedy of one family" will be shown at the KIFF International Film Festival in Rotterdam (the Netherlands).

The film was shot by the documentary filmmaker Lachin Mamishov, who lives in Switzerland in exile, and narrates about the tragic fate of the Doctor of Sciences, linguist Novruzali Mammadov.

As Turan was told by the film's author, this is the fourth film shot in the framework of the Emigrants project. The film would be completed in January 2018 and in addition to the festival KIFF will be presented at several international film festivals.

The founder and editor of the Tolyshi Sado newspaper, the head of the Talysh Culture Center, professor Novruzali Mamedov was arrested in 2007, and died in custody under strange circumstances.

His son Kamran was brutally beaten by unknown people during the arrest of his father and died the next day. The second son, Emil Mammadov and his mother, Maryam, got into a serious road accident on the Astara-Baku highway, when they were returning to Baku from their father's funeral.

Some time later, Emil also died and the only surviving member of the family was Maryam Mammadova, who was forced to apply for political refuge and emigrated to the Netherlands. Currently she lives in The Hague.

The author of the film believes that this idea was perceived ambiguously in Azerbaijan. Some nationalists say, "Why are you making a movie about Novruzali Mammadov?" hinting at the topic of Talysh separatism.

At the same time, "cheering patriots" from among the Talysh people speak about the violation of their rights and discrimination. "However, all of them do not understand that the problem of Talysh separatism was most needed for the authorities, and Novruzali Mammadov had nothing to do with the separatists. On the contrary, he was always loyal to the authorities.

According to the author of the film, the Talysh Culture Center was created on the personal order of Heydar Aliyev. As for the violation of rights or discrimination, in Azerbaijan, the rights of citizens are violated not by nationality, but due to the total lack of rights in general.

According to Mamishov, every film shot in the framework of the project Emigrants is dedicated to the memory of journalists who died in the performance of their professional duty; Elmar Huseynov, Chingiz Mustafayev, and Salatyn Askerova are among them.

"All the films that I will be shooting further I address, mainly to the Western audience. It is important to show the bitter truths about Azerbaijan to the whole world," the author said. -0-