TEN SHADES OF LOVE

The project and the film "Baku, I Love You!", the premiere of which was held at the Heydar Aliyev Centre, aroused great interest among those who follow the development of the cinema, especially Azerbaijani cinema. The public's interest was warmed even more by the fact that the idea, which was conceived in France in 2006 and embodied by its authors into a project entitled "Paris, I Love You!", received not only recognition but also generated a desire for New York, Moscow, Rio and Havana, and even Astana, to express themselves in love. Incidentally, the leader of the project to make the film "My love is Astana" was Yegor Mikhalkov-Konchalovskiy. The film consisted of ten short unconnected stories and was made by different directors.

The film of declarations of love for Baku includes ten short stories, each lasting nine minutes. The producers of the project were Yegor Mikhalkov-Konchalovskiy and Nadir Machanov, with the support of Mehriban Aliyeva, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, and managed by the foundation's vice-president, Leyla Aliyeva. The production team included 138 people and 150 actors and actresses took part in the shooting of this film-miscellany.

Preparations for filming began in November 2011, and the first day of shooting was 12 March 2012. The production team was an international one, including directors from Azerbaijan, Great Britain, Portugal and Russia; actors from Russia, Belarus, Turkey, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Italy and Great Britain; and scriptwriters from Azerbaijan. The music of Azerbaijan's Siyavus Karimi and Vuqar Camalzada was also used in the film. The film-miscellany, like all projects of this type, consists of stories about love, one of which is essentially mystical. In our case, it is the first short story, called "Asia".

"Asia"

Directed and written by Yavar Rzayev

The story is based on the love between a country boy and a film diva, that is the image of a girl on a poster hanging above his bed. The trouble is the diva is getting married! And if he is going to stop this he must go to the city. But that is where diabolical forces in the form of a blonde woman with red eyes come in! As is right and proper in such a story, she is completely invulnerable and untouchable even for the highway police chasing them. In a tiny white car and with incredible speed she takes our hero to the city to the wedding where he wins the girl's heart with one kiss. Of course, the hero doesn't know if he has managed to steal the beauty from under her halo, because this sweet dream, as always, is interrupted by his mother with the sharp cry: "Get up! How long do you think you can sleep?!"

"The Meeting"

Written and directed by Nargiz Bagirzada

A fiddler-robber and a man going to see his daughter from Russia for the first time in 20 years find themselves in the same carriage of a train. But when he sees her daughter on the platform her father loses his courage. He asks her travelling companion to give her a note and he is happy to agree. She takes him to be her father, but he is in no hurry to put her right about that. He likes her at first glance but doesn't know how to behave towards her. And while the real father is tortured by his fears, drinking tea on the street, an innate and by no means sibling relationship develops between the fiddler-robber and his daughter. It begins to dawn on the girl that it is not her father she is with. And the young man finds it difficult to decide: should I go or should I stay? And when he decides to go the real father appears and misinterprets everything, for which he gets a riposte. The ending is left open: the robber, as he goes off, forgets his fiddle, and the girl, as she reaches a staircase, calls out to him. Will he come back or will he leave? The audience has to decide.

"The Artist"

Written and directed by Samir Karimoglu

The film is based on the story of an artist who has created a masterpiece. After painting a portrait of a girl he falls in love with her. This is fatal, because the girl is no longer alive. But to have a portrait from a photograph was her last wish.

"The Backyard"

Written and directed by Nadir Machanov

After several years away on duty a woman arrives in the city where she once fell in love and was happy. Twenty years ago she left her home town when she learned about the death of her lover in Afghanistan. She had made a career, achieved great success and become…a colonel. When she decides to look into the backyard of her youth she suddenly discovers who has "died" and thinks that the young woman on the balcony is his wife. It turns out to be his sister. The happiness which seemed to have been lost for ever returns to them.

"Bahram Qur"

Written by Ilqar Safat

Directed by Andrey Razenkov

A taxi driver has received the results of tests and knows that he hasn't long to live. Then he remembers he has a small son, although it is another man, married to his former wife, who has brought him up. And the boy calls him papa. He wants to see his son, possibly for the last time. His wife understands this but asks him not to tell the boy who his real father is. A short journey by taxi through the city ends at the memorial to Bahram Qur. The boy loves this strong hero who conquered the snake-like dragon. And the father, saying goodbye to him for good, assures the boy he will be just as strong when he grows up. But when the cable-railway takes the child and his paternal father to the top, the taxi driver realizes he is no Bahram Qur because he failed to conquer in his heart the dragon that prevented him from protecting his family.

"Caspian Atlantis"

Written and directed by Ilqar Safat

The hero of this film is a young diver. Every day he has to dive under the water looking for artefacts under the ruins of "Atlantis". One day he finds a ring and brings it home. And then he meets its owner under the water. The Mermaid is so lovely that he cannot find anyone as beautiful in the world. So life on earth becomes more and more pointless to him every day. This drives him into short-term relationships without any commitments. But earthly girls don't care for such an attitude or such a lack of responsibility. A slap in the face in front of everyone is what he gets for his lies: for the next cheated girl and for himself. The tourist route in the Old City is pierced by the bitter laughter of the diver. And in this laughter is the realization that he is now an alien everywhere - here on land and there under the water…Although, he has only just realized that the tourist guide looks so much like the Mermaid…

"The Lottery Ticket"

Written by Nargiz Bagirzada

Directed by Alexander Fodor (Great Britain)

This is the story of two lonely people - a girl, a graduate specialist, and a young man who runs a private taxi service. One morning, late for work, she gets into his taxi and off he takes her. Later she helps him find a job and they start dating. But, unlike her, he doesn't like to work to a strict timetable. He prefers to remain free from commitments. But this doesn't bother the girl at all. It seems to her that they are lucky: they happened to be together at the right time and in the right place.

"About love"

Written by Nargiz Bagirzada

Directed by Andre Babalo (Portugal)

Life for the residents of the Old City is always in full view of one's family and neighbours. A young married woman doesn't love her husband, but loves someone else. She always has and, apparently, always will. The husband, an office clerk, is aware his love is not returned, and that the very thought of bed fills his wife with horror, but still he continues to maintain a semblance of family life. The woman also won't submit to her feelings and change husbands. She maintains her wifely loyalty, torturing herself, her husband and her lover. And nobody in this situation can bring themselves to do anything which might change their lives. Because to do something means to take responsibility, and it seems none of the three is capable of it. Life, meanwhile, goes on: loveless, joyless and pointless.

"Aysel"

Written by Aleksandr Novototskiy-Vlasov

Directed by Aleksey Golubev

In the Old City lives a young woman. She has been waiting for Mr Right for years, and also for many years she has not noticed that a policeman has been in love with her all this time. Aysel's apartment is nearby and so they meet every day. But one day a man will come to her door. A casual passer-by, no-one she knows. He will come, only to disappear, leaving a son as a reminder of himself.

"The Event"

Written by Nargiz Bagirzada

Directed by Yegor Mikhalkov-Konchalovskiy

A girl is trying to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. But the signs that accompany her throughout the day - a retort by her grandmother and the words of her doctor - tell her she doesn't have to go through with it. The girl seems to realize this, it seems that the words of others reach home, but still she doesn't want to risk bringing up a child without a father. She gets into a taxi and goes to the hospital. The driver talks about the importance of bringing a child into this world and says that at one time he didn't understand this. The car crashes. The driver is at death's door but the girl escapes with a light scratch. She realizes that her life was preserved so that her child would live and refuses to have the abortion.

Ten short stories of events which could happen in the same city - Baku -within one day: Baku, which unites destinies, unites interests, awakens feelings. Baku, which is loved not just for the beauty of its architecture, but also something bewitching, something that is imperceptibly beautiful, something that sets it apart from Moscow and Rio, Astana and Paris, Havana and New York.