THROUGH THE LABYRINTH OF THE INNER CITY

A young school leaver named Arzu (played by Tahmina Rafaella) from one of Baku's secondary schools falls in love with a man almost twice her age. His name is Rafael (played by Firdovsi Atakisiyev) and he became disabled after fighting in the war in Nagornyy Karabakh. They have no future because their relationship is invaded by something objectively real in the form of Arzu's mother Sabina (played by Mehriban Zaki). She draws a parallel between her own fate and her daughter's destiny, telling Rafael the story of her own marriage. As this goes on, each of them has their own labyrinth in store for them.

These are quests to discover themselves. Therefore each of them has his or her own "inner city". "Icari Sahar" ["The Old Town" or "The Inner City] directed by Ilqar Safat, an Azerbaijanfilm" studio's full-length feature film, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, was premiered at the "Nizami" cinema centre at the beginning of March. The plot is by Tahmina Rafaella and the screenplay by Tahmina Rafaella and Ilqar Safat. The film's cast includes Mehriban Zaki, Firdovsi Atakisiyev, Elmira Sabanova, Tahmina Rafaella and Anar Xalilov. The film, shot in Baku and Zaqatala, is to be shown at the "YARAT!" contemporary art space at the end of March

A little bit about everything

What is the film about? Is it about love, betrayal, choosing one's own path and the inability to be together. There is probably a little bit about everything. It is about love which could have happened, but did not, and about betrayal (of others and oneself), about those priorities in life to which one gives preference in spite of one's feelings. Ilqar Safat makes the film as if he is painting an impressionist-style picture. The virtual reflection of psychological emotions without becoming deeply immersed in the psychological frame of the characters' personalities creates its own stylistic language in a composition of images and rhythms.

It is a mirror on life. There are many recognisable moments from our own everyday lives in the film. The author does not idealize anything or anyone. Here, after she has operated on a child, Sabina (a surgeon by profession), calmly accepts an envelope with money in it from the child's father. She prefers not to think about where it has come from or how much it has cost him to obtain it. Arzu does not approve of her mother making such "earnings", but calmly accepts this money in order to pay for her music lessons.

Then we have Arzu's friend, Leyla who constantly lies to her parents, going out with a boy who is older than her. Here we have Ali, who is obviously a lazy-bones from a wealthy family. He has a posh car, expensive clothes and the absolutely infantile attitude of a person who lacks ambitions, any plans for the future and is not at all interested in intellectual and spiritual development. What for, when he actually has a dad doing it all for him! Although we don't know exactly what Ali's father does, we realise that he is a wealthy person, and this allows Ali to enjoy a problem-free life.

The protagonists and the antiheroes

The events to which the audience become witnesses do not separate the characters into diametrically opposed positions. There are no winners and no losers here. There are people who are lost in the labyrinth of their own soul, people who are trying to find themselves. In this encounter each discovers a world within himself, which is also called "an inner city". Somewhat complicated? No, not really. It is simple, without pretensions. Arzu is a girl with her own principles, views and standpoint, who claims to have a certain peculiarities in her nature. She studies music and goes to museums, reads Fyodor Dostoyevsky and knows who Tosya is. For her, anyone who does not know who Tosya is cannot be a good person. The girl thinks she is something special, not like other girls, but this does not stop her from joining in the generally accepted moral behaviour which allows one to be a hypocrite, to condemn doctors for accepting money from their patients while actually making use of that money oneself! Being prone to live according to double standards connects her with the inner city, for everyone lives like that, including her mother.

Therefore Arzu does not become the winner in the battle for her own love for Rafael who was shell-shocked in Nagornyy Karabakh. Her will-power is only sufficient for her to challenge her mother's moral principles, to leave and stay in the home of the man with whom she thinks she is prepared to share life. However it turns out that she is not at all ready for that. But you see he reminds her so much of her father who had perished that he is better and more interesting than all of her coevals! Sabina is bringing up her daughter on her own. She is a good surgeon, in demand. But she is the one who had made concessions at 20 years old, marrying a man twice her age whom she did not love! Sabina did this to get away from being under her parents' wing!

This is a dubious type of freedom which becomes a trap. Now she will never find herself in the labyrinth of generally accepted principles and her own strivings. The only way she can justify what she has done is with the birth of her daughter. But when the latter leaves her for a man, after taking a heap of pills, Sabina tries to get even with life. But she does not manage to do it. Then she goes to see Rafael. In order to dot the "i's" in the battle for her daughter, she finds the necessary words to prevent this marriage, for Rafael is a person with a mental disability who has recently been "discharged from a psychiatric hospital". Sabina has her own ideas when it comes to her daughter's happiness, and these do not include Rafael at all!

The city within us

Rafael fought in Nagornyy Karabakh and was seriously wounded, becoming a disabled person after being shell-shock. He is not like other people either. The fear of being rejected by people has made him into a recluse. In moments when he suffers emotional turmoil the attacks return and then in actual fact he loses a sense of reality, mulling over time and again what happened to him on that fateful day when he suffered shell shock. Now he has a "before" and an "after" watershed in his life forever. Only the appearance of Arzu in his life gave him the brief illusion that the world cracked open by the exploding shell might acquire stable forms. But, after the conversation with Sabina, he realises that this is an illusion. Rafael is perhaps the only one of the characters who has found a way out of the labyrinth.

His path leads from the city to the countryside where his ancestors probably lived. He heads there in order to eventually leave the labyrinth of merging worlds and discover himself on the land of his ancestors. 

The little streets, lanes and cul de sacs are like those in the real Icheri Shekher, the inner city, a city which, like man, lives according to its own unwritten laws and rules.

Arzu asks, "How shall we ever get out of this labyrinth?" Rafael replies, "The labyrinth is inside you. Everyone has their own "inner city". People spend some time wandering around in it together, but then their ways part."

So, what is the film really about - is it just a story made up by Tahmina Rafaella and Ilqar Safat? Some people think this film is a love story. But it is more likely that is about the lack of love, about the desire to love and the inability to love. The "inner city" of each character is the wandering around in the labyrinth, depending on the generally accepted rules, principles and views in quests to discover one's own reality. It is you see a desire for love…