ACTOR OF SEVERAL ERAS

Times changed, cinema changed. This was clearly seen from the roles which the unforgettable Azerbaijani actor Hasanaga Turabov played and from which the viewer remembers him.

He gained fame outside Azerbaijan because of his role in the movie "Do not be afraid, I am with you". It was the role of thief Cafar, a villain to whom the audience was somewhat sympathetic. That's how Turabov was remembered by the Soviet viewer - a handsome man in an astrakhan hat, evil and treacherous, but kind and even sentimental deep down. He was a fan of music, after all! Turabov in fact managed to create ambiguous characters.

The characters played by Hasanaga Turabov remained in the memory of the Azerbaijani audience as one of the brightest. The characters he created always contained adequacy. Even the heroic roles played by Turabov stood out against the background of "nomenklatura" archetypes so characteristic of Soviet cinema. Such was, for example, Qacaq Nabi played by Turabov from the movie "Saddle the horses" (1985). His characters were always a little deeper than necessary.

In general, in the 1980s and 1990s, Turabov was lucky with roles, and he was able to show himself as a truly multifaceted actor. The writer and satirist Arkadiy Arkanov had already noticed in the 1990s that in the era of glasnost it was suddenly discovered that creative people had nothing to say. Serious films that could enjoy national love disappeared. During this period of a total creative crisis, "black films", Vaqif Mustafayev's satirical film "Bastard", which became a classic film now, was released. There Turabov absolutely proficiently turns not into a grotesque villain as five years earlier, but into a full and real Soviet party bureaucrat, who may not love to humiliate his subordinates, but understands the "need" to humiliate them. And this is clearly seen from how tired and uninterested his Qazanfar Mammadovich is while ordering the character Mamuka to dance and how bored he is while giving orders to others. Turabov's character here is like Brando's character in "The Godfather" in a way, but without the gangster heroics and without idealization. Everything is honest here.

Hasan Turabov was born in Baku on 24 April 1938. After graduating from high school, he entered the Azerbaijan Institute of Art, from which he graduated in 1960 as an actor. From that year, he worked at the Azerbaijan National Drama Theatre. From the first years of his work in the theatre, he proved himself a master of lyrical and psychological genre and was an indispensable performer of the main roles in the works of world dramatists. He enriched the Azerbaijani theatre scene with colourful and diverse roles.

In 1987-2001, he worked as director and general manager of the Azerbaijan Academic National Drama Theatre, was chairman of the Union of Theatre Figures of Azerbaijan and taught at the Azerbaijan State Institute of Culture and Arts.

As a director, he made the films "Saddle the horses" and "Memories of the pomegranate tree", and as an actor, he played in more than 50 films, including "The Seven Sons of Mine", "Qatir Mammad", "The Day Has Passed", "The Dervish Blows Paris Up", "The Bay of Joy", "Babak" and "I'll Be Back". Hasanaga Turabov passed away on 23 February 2003. This year he would turn 75.

Culture Minister Adalat Valiyev shared his memories of Hasan Turabov with R+. "We often gathered together, discussed different productions, and he could not live without work. Only the death of his son broke him, and after that, Hasan became a different person. That sorrow killed him."

"Turabov was a great actor, who could handle any role. He will remain in our hearts as a man who created fundamental characters in the history of Azerbaijani theatre and cinema," the head of the Union of Theatre Figures, Azarpasa Neymatov, told R+. "We were good friends with him. He always shared his thoughts with me. I remember when Hasanaga starred in the film 'The Seven Sons of Mine', he later admitted to me that the role of Garay bay was his favourite role, because he played himself in it. It was true in reality. Despite the fact that Hasan was a simple, kind and sensitive man in life, his family and colleagues slightly avoided him."

Elcin Maharramov, an actor who worked in the theatre under the direction of Turabov, recalled in an interview with us that he was an actor who knew how to create numerous characters. "Turabov had a lot of characteristic roles - comic, tragic and tough charismatic roles," Maharramov says. "Everyone remembers his roles from famous movies, but there are good performances such as the old play "I cannot forget" with Amalia Panahova, where Turabov played the most beautiful lyrical character."