THE CORE OF AZERBAIJANI CINEMA

'What does the cinema mean to you?' I once asked Rasim. He thought for a moment and then replied: 'Tachycardia, ischemia and a heart attack.'" This was how Faxraddin Manafov, one of the actors in Rasim's films began an evening in memory of Rasim Ocaqov. "When you were on set you were strict, very strict and very demanding; I don't mind using that word - strict - and first and foremost with myself. When I go on set today I am insufferable, difficult, finding fault with everyone and everything - at any rate, that's how it seems to everyone else - but I know why, because I cannot and do not know how to work by anything but my own standards."

Faxraddin Manafov spoke emotionally and with sadness about how Ocaqov had passed away before his time. But overwhelming and everlasting gratitude shone through in everything he said because Manafov learnt so much from Ocaqov. All of us who saw his films and grew up with them continue to enjoy them today.

Rasim Ocaqov, who was virtually the founder of contemporary Azerbaijani cinema, would have been 80 on 22 November. As director-cameraman he made the breakthrough picture "In a Southern City". His "Interrogation", all about corruption, became a nationwide scandal, but it didn't gather dust like some other pictures of its kind. "Birthday" was a truly people's film, but also an intelligent one, but "Tahmina" was a much-loved, but at the same time serious film. And no other film reflects so strongly the realities of the 1990s as "Both Journey and Trade".

On the day of the anniversary celebration of this truly great director a commemorative event was organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism at the UNS theatre. Deputy Prime Minister, writer and public figure Elcin Afandiyev; Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfas Qarayev; the rector of the Baku branch of Moscow M.V. Lomonosov State University; artistic director of the Creative Stage of UNS, Professor Nargiz Pashayeva, other prominent public figures and dignitaries from the world of science, education, culture and the arts in the country attended the evening which was devoted to the director.

Even before the start of the event, as they toured the exhibition of photographs of Rasim Ocaqov and scenes from his films, the guests felt the sincerity, the glow, the tenderness and the aura which accompanied all the films in which this distinguished man of the cinema was involved.

Speaking at the opening of the event, Nargiz Pashayeva said that today was a big day in the short history of the Creative Stage of UNS because today is the birthday of that celebrated figure of Azerbaijani culture, true citizen and master of the arts, Rasim Ocaqov.

"Unfortunately, Rasim Ocaqov is no longer with us, but people such as Rasim Ocaqov are ageless. He will for ever be a part of Azerbaijan's history and in the hearts and minds of our people. Rasim Ocaqov's work may be placed alongside the works of the classics of world cinema," Nargiz Pashayeva said.

The evening devoted to the film director will take the form of a dialogue, she stressed. "I would also like to say to him: Rasim muallim, we thank you, we shall be your permanent audience," Pashayeva said.

Nargiz Pashayeva spoke about Rasim Ocaqov's rich life and work and his immense contribution to national cinema. She said that Rasim Ocaqov will live for ever in the culture and history of Azerbaijani cinema because his films are the fruit of his talent as a director and his soul.

An interview with Ocaqov: "Money?" 

There was music from Ocaqov's films, many kind words were said about him and a documentary about his work and a number of interviews with him were shown. "Today, as I grow old and grey and have to make compromises I find myself afraid…afraid that I might forget my professionalism and my responsibility. Help me, please, Rasim, remind me…and not just me," Manafov went on. "Unfortunately, when someone close to you passes away, you realize there are a lot of questions that you didn't get round to asking him." Faxraddin Manafov set this tone and the rest of the evening continued in the form of a dialogue with Ocaqov. Celebrities of the arts world spoke about him and then Ocaqov himself continued the story.

"After all these years there is so much I would like to talk to you about, but there are two questions which I would like to ask. Tell me, Rasim, what do you think about the money our film makers earn today?" the actress Safiqa Mammadova asked from the stage. "Money?" Ocaqov asked. "One day my colleague - the cameraman Narimanbayov - and I met the film studio's chief accountant in town and asked him when we were going to be paid for a film which we had already been shooting for about six weeks. He said when we get it, you'll get it. And, you know, I wasn't at all offended: I just thought, I'm a lucky man - I'm doing a job I love and I'm getting paid for it."

Then Ocaqov told a story about when he was making a film in Turkey in the mid-1990s: "This Turkish man wanted to know how much I earned. I tried to avoid answering, but he kept on. I didn't want to tell him that I only got 40 dollars a month, so I tried to look important and said - 200 dollars. The other man was very surprised and it was only then that I remembered that in his country a taxi driver gets 300 dollars. And I was unable to explain to him that I, a Soviet director, wasn't particularly interested in the money."

Interview with Ocaqov: "Censorship" 

"My second question is about censorship. Rasim, do you find it hard working with it?" Safiqa Mammadova asked for her second question. "You get censorship in some form or another in every country, but here it was excessively, quite ridiculously severe," Ocaqov replied. "They would even pick on such petty things as, for example, why doesn't your hero smile very much? But, in actual fact, the role of censorship today has been exaggerated far too much. Today you can do what you like, there's no censorship, but there is a shortage of good films today, and the directors that were well-known in the past now, with no censorship, are making much worse films."

"The great Rasim Ocaqov often loved to say that his work was hugely influenced by Italian neo-realism, and you have to agree with that, but I would like to add that the French avant-garde also had an influence," says the film critic and head of Gosfilmofond [State Film Foundation], Camil Quliyev. "Rasim Ocaqov's films were both simple and complex, and they were multi-faceted. The celebrated Epstein of the avant-garde cinema said: 'Look how much sadness there is in rain'. Rasim Ocaqov knew how to film rain, the smell of the sea, the town - he could do it all."

Interview with Ocaqov: "Fine!" 

"He never praised us while we were working. We knew that a take had gone well when Rasim simply said: 'Stop, print it!' one of his favourite actors, Haci Ismayilov, said from the stage. "And when we asked: 'Well, how was it?' he simply waved his hand and said: 'Fine'. That was his way of expressing praise, and later, when the film was released, away from the set, he might praise one of the actors." And the actor ended by saying: "We always felt that we understood his professionalism and his serious approach to things, and even today, when Rasim is no longer with us, I suddenly realize that he was the real core, ocaq  (in Azeri: "ocaq" mean burning fire) of our cinema." 

"Just look how many people have come here, dignitaries from the arts world, everyone who knew Rasim in one way or another, and all because Rasim was not only a gifted man, but incredibly kind and genial," the well-known writer and public figure, Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Elcin Afandiyev, told R+. "That is precisely why all who remember him and love him have tried to be here today." And, after reflecting, he added: "Today is the birthday of the author of 'Birthday', but, very sadly, he is not here to celebrate it."