The Exam

The film portrays the life of the legendary Azerbaijani guerrilla of the Second World War Mehdi Huseynzadeh, who fought the Nazi forces in the present-day Italy and Slovenia, hence the film's name On distant shores referring to the Adriatic Sea.

This Azerbaijani romantic drama depicts the love affair between Zaur, a man from an affluent family, and Tahmina, a divorced woman doing her best to survive in a conservative society.

Psychological drama about a university dean who leads a double life.

Based on a novel by Farman Karimzade, the movie shows the life in an Azerbaijani village under the Soviet rule in 1930s. Here two former "beys" (land owners) are opposing each other. One is loyal to the ideology of the past and can't reconcile himself to the new power, to second rejects the past and accepts the power of the Bolsheviks, believing that it will establish justice.

A journalist is investigating a group of poachers who are illegally selling the huge amounts of fish

Garib in the Land of Jinn

A young girl is trying to save an island which is endangered by nearby construction.

The story is set during an upsurge in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and revolves around an old, sick ex-forestry worker and his wife Nabat, whose son has died in battle.

Inspired by Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, the film follows a prodigal son who returns after 12 years. His reappearance at the family home in rural Azerbaijan significantly alters their way of life.

After her husband's death, a widow returns to Moscow with her mother-in-law, unaware that a depressed passenger is determined to blow up the train en route

Film exposes the corruption and the decadence of the late Soviet bureaucracy in Azerbaijan SSR through the eyes of a naive Azerbaijani adult man, Hatem.

The investigator Seyfi Ganiyev runs the case of an illegal mercery shop's head Murad Abiyev, who confessed in embezzlement of one million rubles from public funds. Abiyev is also accused of the murder of an underage girls that occurred in Riga shortly after Abiyev saw her. He denies his guilt, but does not name the perpetrators though he knows them, despite the fact that he is facing the death penalty. The investigator understands that some high-ranking officials stand behind Abiyev, but he has no proof. Ganiyev seeks to obtain from the prisoner the whole truth to bring the criminals to justice.

The film reveals the contradictions between the "educating" teachers and the "educated" students in the school, which is actually an orphanage and a boarding school, where lawlessness, violence, hypocrisy, and cruelty prevail. Forced to live in such contradictory conditions, but unable to adapt to these conditions, little Ahsan, who misses his native home, finds the only way out - he perishes by throwing himself out of the window. The film was shot on the basis of the motifs of Isi Malikzade's story "Nowruz Holiday of Wanderers".

This lyrical psychological film is about true friendship. The characters in the film are contemporaries in of late 1970s Azerbaijan SSR with differing visions of the world, yet sharing true and lasting friendship.

The Peasants

Murad, a young man, lives by the old ethical norms that are still valid in the suburbs of his city. He had promised Tofig, his childhood friend, to give him his sister as a wife, but Tofig is in love with another girl. He forgets the promise and takes the girl home. Murad is offended. According to the code of honor, he must take revenge. One of the first films ever produced in the Soviet Union to challenge the sociopolitical establishment.

Childhood friends Ahmet and Nuri, the sons of poor farmers, grew up together, studied together, and worked together in a factory. Together, they publish the magazine Light, which opposes the colonial policies of foreign capital and military pacts. After their first imprisonment, the friends' paths diverge: Nuri betrays his convictions and joins a reactionary newspaper. His life is now safe, but he finds no joy or peace. Meanwhile, Ahmet, having become one of the main enemies of the reactionaries, attracts more and more patriots to his side.

This film was based on Samad Vurgun's "Komsomol poem". Seven sons, like seven samurai become the seven komsomols (communist leaders) who were sent to a village to establish Soviet power. Seven sons become the romanticized images of people's heroes ready to take revenge.

While there is famine during WW2, a boy with mom far away, tries to stay strong.

In Soviet Azerbaijan, a divorced Armenian couple fights over the custody of their daughter, Ashen. Stolen from one parent to another, Ashen's guardians are tragically killed in the bloody war surrounding them. Will the arrival of a new savior finally bring Ashen freedom? Official selection of the Global Lens Collection presented by the Global Film Initiative.