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The Family ( Aila)
Azerbaijan, Russia (1998)
About the film
The directorial debut of Rustam Ibragimbekov, who is best known as a
screenwriter ("Burnt by the Sun", "The Barber of
Siberia") is a warm and sad allegory on the end of the USSR in
1990 and 1991. A large, symbolically multi-national Soviet family
shares a communal apartment in Baku, unwillingly led by Ismail, an old
meritorious communist who finds it hard to come to terms with the new
political climate. (His physical resemblance to Mikhail Gorbachev is
no accident). Keeping the family together is becoming almost
impossible; everyone else wants to split up. Subplots involve petty
corruption, easy morals, and theft of public art, but the family’s main
activity is smuggling an Armenian relative safely out of the country
during the opening months of the Nagorno-Karabakh war. Aila, though
made by Azeri cinema’s best-known artist, treats the civilians
expelled by both sides as innocent victims of changed political
times.
Director's filmography
Rustam Ibragimbekov (b. 1939 in Baku) graduated from the
Institute for Petrochemical Studies, then studied script writing and
film directing at VGIK in Moscow. He has written more than 40 film and
television scripts, numerous plays and pieces of prose. Among his most
noteworthy film work is The White Sun of the Desert (1970,
Bieloye solnce pustyni), Interrogation (1979,
Dopros), Guard Me, My Talisman (1986, Khrani mena, mdl
talisman), The Plainclothes Cop (1957, Filer). Since
1990 he has been collaborating closely as scriptwriter with Nikita
Mikhalkov. Films: Hitch-Hiker (1990, Avtostop)
Urga (1991) Burnt by the Sun (1994,
Utomlyonnye solntsem), The Barber of Siberia (1998,
Sibirski ciryulnik) and East-West (1999).
Ibragimbekov devotes his time to various supra-national activities
for the Union of Filmmakers and he is also a film producer.
Ramiz Hassanoglu Mirzoyev (b. 1946 in Yerevan), cinematographer,
was educated in Leningrad and has made 13 television films.
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95 min., color, 35 mm
Azeri with English subtitles
Director: Rustam Ibragimbekov, Ramiz Hassanoglu
Mirzoev
Screenplay: Ibragimbekov
Dir. of photography: Valery Kerimov, Fikret Askerov
Music: Djafar Aliev
Editor: Nissachanum Gadieva
Producer: Rustam Ibragimbekov, Michail Litvak
Production: Azerkinovideo, Baku and Ibrus Ltd., Moscow
Cast: Gasanaga Turabov, Sijavus Kerimi, Svetlana Metkina,
Rafik Alijev
Contact: Ibrus Ltd.
11, Maly Kozikhinsky per
Moscow 103001, Russia
vox: 7.095.299.70.20
fax: 7.095.299.38.80
THE HOLLOWAY
FILE
Database of Russian and Ex-Soviet Union directors
FREEDOM FILM FESTIVAL POSTER
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