HILAL BAYDAROV EXPERIENCED THE EXCITEMENT OF HIS FIRST PREMIERE IN BAKU: “WE SHOT A FILM IN THE DESERT FOR ELEVEN MONTHS”

The screening of the film “Sermon to the Void” was held within the framework of the “Baku Cinema Breeze” International Film Festival. The film is a co-production of Azerbaijan, Mexico and Turkey. Huseyn Nasirov, Maryam Naghiyeva, Rena Askerova, Elshan Abbasov and Orkhan Iskanderli play roles in the screenplay. The screenwriters are Hilal Baydarov and Aysu Akcan, and the producer is Orkhan Fikretoglu.
Although the director of the film Hilal Baydarov usually presents his films at international festivals, he was especially excited to premiere it in Baku for the first time and answered our questions for Kinoinfo.az.
You started your work with a documentary, but you continue with a feature film. Are you thinking of returning to documentary?
I didn’t start with a documentary, they just called what I shot a documentary. When I first picked up a camera, I didn’t think “I was making a documentary”. They called it a documentary because they saw me, my mother and my family because there was no budget. Then I filmed my friends, and they called it fiction. It makes no difference to me, I always tried to make the same kind of film.
This film is the last of the “sermon” trilogy. Are you planning a new trilogy?
Every time I film, I think it’s part of some trilogy. Now we’ve finished filming another film, and it seems like this will be the “ashug trilogy.” I don’t know for sure – it will happen or not. It’s not something I planned in advance. I’m just following a path, and that path branches out like a tree.
What difficulties did you encounter while filming the film?
There were only difficulties throughout the filming. We filmed the film for eleven months, collecting two hundred and fifty hours of material. We filmed in the snow, in the winter, on the river, in the open air. If it weren’t for Hussein, the film wouldn’t have been completed. The filming was a separate problem, and when it was finished, another problem would arise. The editing was also very difficult, because there was so much material that it couldn’t be finished. It was a low-budget film, I didn’t even know when the shooting would end – two months, three months… There was nothing definite in the script, I just kept shooting. So we shot for eleven months in Gobustan, Sangachal and volcanic areas. It was difficult, but I love difficulty.
Do you have a new project?
Yes, we have finished shooting the new project. The current title of the film is “I am Called from Somewhere”. The original title was “The Epic of Seven Ashiqs”. For now, the title remains the same.