Caspian Energy (CE): Could you please tell about Narimanfilm?
Nariman Mammadov, Chairman of the Board of ‘Narimanfilm’ film studio: Our Company was established in 1994 in Baku. The main activity of ‘Narimanfilm’ film studio can be described in three areas. The first one is the production activity. It implies production of audiovisual products, production of art, documentary and short films, as well as production of various advertising content for business structures operating in Azerbaijan.
The second area implies provision of a wide range of services in the field of cinematography to interested producers, cinema production for foreign partners and TV channels. One of the goals set by the company is to attract as many foreign film projects to Azerbaijan as possible in order to stimulate film production, and at the same time, the tourism industry of our country. We believe that Azerbaijan is a unique filming location, because it has very rich natural resources and an immense creative potential.
With certain experience in this field, “Narimanfilm” film studio can be a very good alternative for major film projects. Moreover there are already certain precedents in this direction. Many foreign companies, implementing short-term and long-term projects, come to Azerbaijan, shoot films or serials.
The third area of our activity is the promotion and distribution of national films. As a rule, we help young and beginning filmmakers present a viewer the products, they have created, in the best way and quality. We set ourselves a goal to promote production of the Azerbaijani cinematography both domestically and abroad. To carry out these tasks, we work with various film forums, film festivals where we participate regularly and present products created in Azerbaijan.
CE: What new projects are scheduled for 2017?
Nariman Mammadov: Despite the fact that many people consider 2017 quite difficult we are focused on fulfilling concrete tasks. First of all, we have to complete production that we started last year. Namely, we began shooting a short film «The dog drinking seawater» written by Lala Aliyeva-Klichkova and directed by Murad Abiyev. We plan to finalize the postproduction of this film in the coming months and present the film to the public. This short feature film addresses a problem of stray dogs. First run of the other short feature film, shot by our film studio, took place in February of this year. The movie, called “Second bullet”, has been written and directed by young and talented filmmaker Natig Rasulov. It should be noted that the script of this film won the contest held by the Azerbaijan Republic Filmmakers Union led by the USSR’s honored artist Shafiga Mammadova, who made an invaluable contribution in order to have the film of a young beginning director come out and presented to the public.
At present we have several projects of full-length feature films under development, which are written by a well-known playwright writer, successful stage and film director Ilgar Safat. We hope that we will be able to attract interested parties to begin production of these films.
‘Narimanfilm’ film studio is an official partner and representative of the children’s film festival ‘GIFFONI’ in Azerbaijan. For almost five years we have been annually sending a group of children from Azerbaijan to Italy and Georgia to participate in this film festival. Just like in previous year, we will send a group of children from Azerbaijan to participate in this international film festival this year as well. In future we plan to conduct a visiting session of this film festival in Azerbaijan. We currently hold negotiations with the Filmmakers’ Union of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Guild of Producers of Azerbaijan and potential sponsors to arrange this international event in Azerbaijan.
Apart from this, negotiations are held with some foreign partners within the framework of provision of services to them when they do filming in Azerbaijan. As it was already mentioned, Azerbaijan has a unique climatic diversity which makes it possible to consider our country as a unique platform for a year-round filming doing.
Within the framework of the existing program, we also plan to improve the professional level of our employees. Within the framework of this program, we plan to send a number of our employees to various qualification trainings. This work was already successfully carried out in 2016. I think that we will continue work in this direction this year as well and our employees will be sent to improve their skills beyond Azerbaijan.
CE: Which distingushing feature of Narimanfilm could you name?
Nariman Mammadov: A unique creative and production collective that we managed to put together is one of our distinguishing features. We do not confine ourselves to only one type of activity. For instance, our colleagues are involved either in production activity or provision of services while Narimanfilm also combines a creative component – the staff of the company includes authors, directors and scenarists, as well as good managers for project organization. The main distinguishing feature is our unique collective that we managed to put together.
Besides, unlike state companies receiving subsidies for film production from the state, we manage to earn funds required for film production by means of our commercial activities. Over the years of our activity since 1994 we have implemented many interesting and socially-significant projects. However, it would be impossible to have them implemented without support of our partners and sponsors among whom we would like to note the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan, PASHA Holding and PASHA Bank.
CE: Can you mention any key project which gave a momentum to its further development?
Nariman Mammadov: We have implemented many successful projects. In my opinion, a full-length feature film “Sahə” (The Precinct), written and directed by Ilgar Safat, is the most memorable and successful project. This movie is some sort of a business card of our company. We are very proud that under support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan and PASHA Bank we managed to create a product representing Azerbaijan at the most significant film-forums of the world and opening a new page in the history of the Azerbaijani cinema. I hope that our most significant project is still ahead and we will be able to impress our audience with interesting and memorable works as well.
СЕ: You are the Deputy Chairman of Guild of Producers of Azerbaijan. Could you tell about this organization?
Nariman Mammadov. The Guild of Producers of Azerbaijan was founded just a few years ago. Therefore, it must be noted that the process of establishment of the Guild has not been fully completed yet. At the same time, over this short term the Guild brought together the most active and successful film producers of Azerbaijan. The belief that any producer is a very rich person arose as early as in the Soviet period and still exists. A producer allocates funds for the film and constantly interferes with the movie production process and hinders production designers to create genuine works of art and masterpieces, pursuing a single objective – a commercial benefit. No other profession is so unclear as the job of a producer. Partly it happens because the role that a producer plays changes due to concrete production circumstances, as well as due to involvement of several producers in many movies. Each of these producers has their own specific tasks to fulfill. This institute is just being introduced in Azerbaijan. In this regard, one of the major tasks of the Guild of Producers of Azerbaijan is to create clear rules of the game at the market for all people involved in film production, as well as improve the legal framework regulating the rights and obligations of all parties engaged in film production. One of the other important tasks of the Guild is to represent interests of the community to the legislative and executive authorities in order to create the most favorable conditions for production activity in Azerbaijan.
