THE MEETING PLACE CANNOT BE CHANGED

This year, the festival programme was quite diverse and presented Eurasian movies to the audience, movies from Muslim countries, movies by Jan Sverak and a special showing of movies from the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, France, Italy and a German-Dutch-Italian-Russian-Finnish joint project.  This is why there were more celebrities than in previous years.  Inna Churikova, Gleb Panfilov, Kirill Razlogov, Valentin Chernykh, Ilya Shtemler, Gary and Lucy Fisher and many others.

An exhibition of the works of creative photographer Aleksandra Kremer-Gomasuridze, "Live Music", was organized during the festival.  Her works riveted the audiences' attention with their unusual composition of shot and their ability to catch the structure of the creative moment, which can transform the creative person by lifting the veil of mystery from the workings of her mind and soul.  A Bakuvian and now a Parisian, she gladly agreed to exhibit her work for her fellow countrymen.  And it was the right decision.  Her work received a warm welcome.

A group of musicians from Moravia arrived with the Czech delegation.  Moravia is a province which, geographically, is situated on the border between the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  Their town is called Ugorske Gradisce.  "Late Assembly" is the group's name.  Among its members are a teacher, an environmentalist, a geologist, a scientist and a pensioner - people who take a serious interest in performing folk songs.  Josef is a violin player, Stanislaw plays dulcimer, Ivo is a cello player, and Petja and Vladimir play violins.  They sang everywhere - on the bus, on stage, at a restaurant, walking in the streets...  People would stop, smile at them with approval and applaud them.

Day one.  The Opening

The gala opening of the XI East-West International Film Festival took place at the Heydar Aliyev Palace.  A short film about the history of the festival, interspersed with artists' performances, offered a stylistic and conceptual proof of sorts of the name of the festival.  Rustam Ibrahimbayov, founder of the festival and its president, received an award from the Turksoy Society, the bronze Koroglu.  The festival opened with Nikolay Dostal's movie "Petya on the Road to the Kingdom of Heaven," which was awarded the Golden St George Award at the 21st Moscow Film Festival (2009).

Leading artists of Azerbaijan thanked participants and guests of the festival from the stage and stressed that the name and the ideology behind the festival were quite in tune with events.

Gala routine

The life of the festival began with Rustam Ibrahimbayov's phrase:  "East is East, and West is West, and the twain shall meet in Baku!"  And it continued for seven happy days.  There were meetings, acquaintances, discoveries, a round-table discussion on Muslim mysticism in Oriental cinematography, master classes by Krzysztof Zanussi and Jan Sverak, representatives of the Los Angeles School of Cinematography, Kirill Razlogov, Firuze Khosrovani, Inna Churikova and Gleb Panfilov, Moravian music, excursions to the most interesting parts of the country and discussions on the art of cinema as the most important and potent of all arts.  Practising cinematographers and cinematic theoreticians noted the growing trend in the Eastern and Western arts of the cinema to reconsider history and the role of people in it.  Eastern philosophy is closely related to the life of the Western person too.  The influence of Eastern philosophy on the hearts and minds of artists from different countries is quite evident.  After all, spiritual quest is the essence of Sufism.  The movies brought to the festival by both Western and Eastern directors fell quite well into this general category.  "The 1930s" by Tunisian director Fadhel Jaziri, "Takva" by Ozer Kiziltan from Turkey, "Gift to Stalin" by Rustem Abdrashev from Kazakhstan, documentaries "The House" by Jean Artus-Bertrand from France, "The Stadium of the Homeless" by Kasija Adamik from Poland, "Glass Tare," "Kolja," "Drive" and "Oilies" by Jan Sverak from the Czech Republic, "The Class" by Ilmar Raar from Estonia and many others explore just this subject .  The programme this year was quite extensive and diverse, but it was interconnected by a general leitmotif which can be described as a search for vanishing spirituality.  Or spirit.

Day Seven.  The Closing

One week passed quickly.  And the day came when the best of the best of the movies shown during the festival had to receive their awards.  The winner in the "Most Humane Message to the Viewer" category was "Gift to Stalin" by director Rustem Abdrashev and scriptwriter Pavel Finn.  The Azerbaijani director Elcin Musaoglu won the prize for the most talented debut for his "40th Door."  People's Artists of the USSR Inna Churikova and Gleb Panfilov received awards for their extraordinary contribution to Eurasian cinematography.  The "Audience's Choice" special prize was handed to Jan Sverak for his films.  In short, the guests were happy and pleased as they left Baku, with good memories of the city and its people and words of gratitude for the organizers of the festival.  Those who had been in Baku for the first time said that they would certainly come again.  And perhaps they will - there is a whole year until the next festival.

Let us also note that the festival was organized by the Heydar Aliyev Fund, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Azerbaijani Union of Cinematographers, the Azerbaijani Fund for the 100th Anniversary of Cinematography and the Confederation of the Unions of Cinematographers of the CIS and Baltic Countries.