THE SECRET OF BEING EVERLASTING

Suqra Bagirzada can count her roles in more than a dozen films which are still loved and remembered by audiences: "Along the streets and paths", "Ulduz", "The Lion left home", "Apple for apple", "The Execution has been stopped" and many others. She started her career with the Cucalarim song and dance ensemble. At the beginning of the 1960s, everyone in the Soviet Union knew the voice of little Sugra. Today Merited Artiste of Azerbaijan Suqra Bagirzada is continuing to make films and is busy painting flowers. She was recently awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of the Turkic World Studies' International Academy of Sciences for her contribution to the development of Turkic world culture as well as to Azerbaijani-Turkish relations.

 - Suqra xanim [term of respect when addressing an Azerbaijani woman], could you please tell us what you are working on at the moment? What film are you making?

- At the present time, I am working on the serial Life, You Are Amasing. I am playing Ulviya xanim, the wife of a successful businessman and the mother of two children. On the surface, it looks as if she is living a stable and untroubled, happy life, but in reality everything is the opposite. My character has to overcome numerous problems. She is crying almost all of the time, worried about her family and trying to help her husband. In short, the role is a dramatic and depressing one (she laughs). I keep on asking the screenwriters to lighten up my part with a drop of optimism and joy, but they are opposed to such changes.

- Do you miss the cinema?

- A lot. I did not act in serials before. I considered that it was not serious and was frivolous. Therefore when Ramin Nabiyev, the producer of the serial Life, You Are Amasing, began to persuade me to act in the film, I spent a long time thinking about it until I had read the script. But then I gave in to the producer's pressure and do not regret my decision at all. 

- Your last feature film…

- Last year the young director Nurlan Sirudinoglu shot his diploma work, the short-length film "European Bride", in which I played a French woman, the mother of the main character. In the plot, my husband played by Eldar Bagirbayov comes to Baku with his family, where his young daughter falls in love with an Azerbaijani. This summer the full-length feature film "Zaman adli qatar" was completed by director Kanan Musayev. I played the mother of the main character (she laughs). What can I do about it, now that my age is such that I am entrusted with the parts of mothers and grand-mothers? And I have to admit that I really like it…

- And you can talk about that so easily? Some actresses who have been on the stage for a long time, are still refusing to play the parts of older people and demand the parts of Juliette and Leyla…

- Who are they trying to kid? I shall be 70 in a year's time and I have never kept my age a secret. On the contrary, I like to see people's surprised looks, when they learn how old I actually am. I don't really look my age…

 - How do you manage to keep young in body and soul?

- I don't have any secrets. You need to move about all the time, to like what you are doing and to find the ideal balance between work and family.

- In your view, what kind of future does Azerbaijani cinematography have?

- I think that Azerbaijani film-making has a very good future. Of late, the state has been paying particular attention to this art form. Funding has been made available, new screenplays are being written, films are being made which are submitted to various international film festivals. Naturally, one cannot help but be pleased about this. But the spectator of today no longer goes to the cinema, since life is full of television, videos and DVDs.

Film-goers have become lazy since it is comfortable at home on the sofa in front of the TV set; digital television provides everyone with hundreds of channels at the same time. Alas, video and all this technology has played a dirty trick on us. Today you can just go on filming and filming. At one time, they filmed on celluloid and the attitude to each frame was like that to a work of art.

I remember when I was in year eight I acted in the film "Ulduz" directed by Aga-Rza Quliyev. As soon as auditions for the film started, photographs of the actors who were auditioning for the film appeared on the metal notice board on Torgovaya Street. After some time, the photographs of all those acting in the film and the film crew were hung up there. Baku residents who took a stroll along Torgovaya Street in the evenings already learned that they had begun shooting a new film in Baku. They waited impatiently for the film to be completed, to be able to stand in the huge queue for the cherished tickets and to see the new film. At that time, the attitude to actors was different…

- Please could you tell us something about your parents and your childhood. How did you become a soloist in the Cucalarim song and dance ensemble?

- I come from a big family with seven sisters and brothers. My mother Maleyka xanim graduated from the Department of Dentistry at the Medical Institute, and my father Sadig muallim was an architect and bridge builder. They got to know each other in Georgia when they were still students. When my dad saw her walking down the street, he fell in love with her at first sight. After the wedding, he brought her back to Baku, to his homeland. At that time, his family lived in Cambarakand, a renownedly conservative district. My mum always followed fashion, wore a stylish chiffon scarf, high heels and platform sandals. When the young family moved to Cambarakand, rumours went round the block that Sadig had married a Georgian fashion model.

When her children were born, my mother continued to take care of her appearance. She became a housewife and brought up the children. I began to sing and dance from very early childhood. When she noticed that I had a good voice and ear, my mother registered me in the children's choir that had started at the Young Pioneers' and Schoolchildren's Palace. My older sister Elmira was also joining in the activities there. They soon noticed me and I rapidly became the soloist in this choir. That was a special and very happy period in my life. In 1959, a 10-day festival of Azerbaijani art was held in Moscow, in which our song and dance ensemble took part.

A big responsibility was placed on my shoulders at this festival for I was entrusted with singing the solo of the song Cucalarim. We represented Azerbaijan in a worthy manner. A month later, this song, sung by me, was included in the album "The best children's voices in the world". I travelled almost around the whole world with Cucalarim. The great Rasid Behbudov and the well-known pedagogue Aleksandr Akimovich, who thought that I needed to sing in the opera with my first soprano voice, gave me singing lessons. When I had grown up a bit the "Azerbaijanfilm" studio offered I a job where I began to do voice-overs for foreign films and then I started to act in films. Everyone thought I was destined for an acting career, everyone except my father…

- If that was so, why did he let you go on guest tours at that time?

- I always got top marks, and my dad would keep on saying that such a clever little girl could register at any institution of higher education in the country. He thought that the stage was just a children's amusement for me, but I needed to choose a more serious profession for my whole life. Before each guest tour, a letter would arrive in the study of my father who was an official at the railway administration at that time. The letter would state what a talented daughter he had and how important it was that I should take part in one event or another. My dad had no choice but to allow me to go on these children's guest tours. We were brought up in a strict manner and were accustomed to a certain order. At that time, I was sometimes offended and tried to argue with him, but now that I am already a mother and grandmother, I understand why he acted as he did. He had eight children and was worried about every one of them and only did the best he could for us.

- Please tell us how you came to get into films.

- When I was studying in year eight, the director Zeynab Kazimova who knew me from my performance with Cucalarim and for the dubbing at the studio, offered me the main part in her film "Along the streets and roads". Then came the film Ulduz which is often shown on television here. After that, I acted in 11 films. When I finished secondary school, I was even offered a place at the All-Union State Cinematography Institute, but my father was opposed to that and even disapproved of the film-directing faculty. I entered the State Oil Academy and got a diploma as an engineering technician in high molecular chemistry.

When I graduated from the institute with an excellent grade, I worked at a scientific research institute for 18 months, and then fate once again directed me into the Azerbaijanfilm studio, but as an assistant in the film processing laboratory. I started off as a laboratory assistant and then worked my way up to head of shift. I knew everything about my behind-the-scenes job. Then I was made head of the film department and I was senior engineer of the Azerbaijanfilm studio when I retired. I was never registered as an actress there, although I played in numerous films. At that time, I was already married, and my husband was not at all opposed to me acting in films.

- What was your favourite role? Which film do you like to see over and over again?

- I like all the parts I have played, but I do not like to see my films again, because I always notice what appears to me to be some kind of shortcomings and I always think that I could have acted better.

- What, in your view, are our young actresses lacking?

- Modesty. In spite of the fact that I have numerous films and roles under my belt, I do not regard myself as a star. I am simply doing my job which I love and value very much… It is by no means as hard to live in this world as some people think. You need to be honest with yourself and have a considerate attitude to those around you, not be envious of them and to be responsible for what you do. Believe me, money is not the main thing in this life. When my husband and I got married, we did not have anything. We each earned 90 roubles. We came up against many hardships and obstacles which only made our family stronger and more robust.

- Suqra xanim, could you please tells us something about your floral painting?

- I took up studying floral painting in the grim days of the 1990s, when chaos and confusion reigned in the country. It helped to distract me from depression and what was negative. We had always loved flowers in our family. I remember that my mother used to take care of the flowers and plants and always got upset when plants were affected by disease or died. Once I told her that, when I grew up, I would definitely invent a way of extending the life of flowers and making them everlasting.

- And one has been invented…

- (she laughs) Professional chemists, my skills in using centrifuges to process chemical substances, my knowledge of how to change the consistency of flowers and working with various solutions were needed to this. I only work with live flowers, and they already become dry in the composition. It takes two years to complete every picture, irrespective of its size. It is in that time alone that they become like ceramics. Then I add colour to them and afterwards I wait a bit longer until the flowers take on the colour. The last stage is making sure the colour is fast, and the picture of flowers is ready for you to enjoy for many long decades to come.

- You are a member of the Union of Artists and took part in the World Summit of Floral Painters. What does floral painting mean to you?

- It is a particular way of conveying your feelings and emotions through flowers. I think and dream about my pictures and compositions and love them. I have a certificate for the new profession of the floral painting industry awarded to me by the World Summit of Floral Painters that consists of 27 countries, with me representing Azerbaijan as a country from the former Soviet Union. I am the only floral designer using live flowers in this genre. I have also taken part in an international flower-arranging exhibition in St. Petersburg devoted to the 300th anniversary of [Tsar Peter the Great's] Peterhof palace. I presented my works there under the title "A tribute to friend Peterhof" and was among four participants who received an award. Besides the honorary certificate and the diploma, I was presented with an imitation White House vase. 

At the present time, I have several pupils to whom I am teaching all the secrets of floral painting. I would like this decorative applied art form to take root in Azerbaijan. Flowers are very much like people, just as varied and unique; they require just as much care and considerate attention, and they vary in their nature and the conditions in which they live. The skill to deal with flowers, to make them into a unique composition while retaining their freshness and life force is a real art. The one who knows how to do that is a real wizard, for he provides the opportunity for others to see, feel and understand the beauty of the world around us. 

- Which plant is regarded as the hardest to prepare the chemical preparations for?

- The rose. The more petals there are, the harder and more painstaking the work of the floral painter is. When I teach this skill to children, we start off with the simplest thing, dealing with the leaves, roots and sprigs. The most difficult part is retaining the original appearance of the petals, each of which is unique in its pattern and form. These are such delicate flowers that you need to take an individual approach to them.

- Suqra xanim, tell us something about your children. Who of them has followed in your footsteps, dedicated himself to chemistry, the cinema or floral painting?

- I have two daughters - Gulara and Camila. They have other interests. Right from when they were children, my girls learned foreign languages and were not the least interested in chemistry or the cinema. I myself didn't force them to take up my interests. My husband and I gave them the right to choose. My older daughter, Gulara, graduated from the Institute of Foreign Languages, and my younger daughter, Camila, from the Institute of Arts [State University of Culture and Art]. I have four grandchildren growing up, and two of them, Olivia and Amelia, like to deal with flowers. I hope that they will continue my work and make floral painting popular, not just as an art form, but also as a promising business trend.