Exhibition of the Azerbaijan film posters

Assembly Hall
Art Gallery
Ceremonial Opening: 2 August 2010, 4 PM
Organizer: State film fund

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism organized many activities for National Cinema Day. The first event took place on 2 August 2010 in the Assembly Hall and the Art Gallery of the Museum Centre. This significant date was first established by President Heydar Aliyev of the Azerbaijan Republic on 18 December 2000. The date – 2 August - was not chosen at random, for the history of Azerbaijani cinema did not begin in 1916 when the film, ‘Under the Rule of Oil and Millions’ appeared on the screen, but much earlier. And although many people believe that to be the beginning of the cinematic epoch in Azerbaijan, the first motion pictures flashed onto the country’s blue screens as far back as 1898. Azerbaijani cinema is on the rise again today owing to its professionals and to the help of the government. Event host and director of the State Film Foundation, Jamil Guliyev, greeted the guests and spoke very briefly about the history of the Azerbaijani cinema. On the big screen the audience watched a video chronicle of past events connected with Azerbaijani cinematography. Most of the audience were cinema personalities. After viewing the videos, representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism presented awards to cinema veterans.
Later, everybody was invited to the Art Gallery of the Museum Centre where an interesting exhibition ‘Azerbaijani film-posters 1930-1980’ was displayed. These posters had been restored using the facilities of the State Film Foundation of Azerbaijan.
Each film-poster is a kind of artwork thanks to which the young generation can study the history of Azerbaijani cinema. Spare, but at the same time bright and memorable posters of the last century are very different from their modern equivalents. One cannot find alluring advertising slogans or stills from the films on them. And most important is that all the posters were hand-painted by professional artists, that is, with soul. Perhaps that is why these posters return us to the past. The exhibition features more than 50 old posters which invited audiences to cinemas between 1930 and 1980. Among them are magnificent posters for such popular films as ‘Arshin Mal Alan’, ‘O Olmasin Bu Olsun’, ‘Nasimi’, ‘Fires of Baku’, ‘On the Distant Coast’, ‘Two From the Same Quarter’, ‘Bizim Jabish Muallim’, ‘Deli Kur’, ‘Baghli Qapi’, ‘Yaramaz’, ‘The Knights of the Black Lake’, ‘Yeddi Oghul Isterem’, ‘Dede Gorgud’, ‘The Groom has been Stolen’, ‘Nizami’, ‘Babek’, made by such famous directors as Habib Ismaylov, Huseyn Seyidzade, Hasan Seyidbeyli, Arif Babayev, Rasim Ojaqov, Eldar Guliyev, Rasim Ismaylov, Oktay Mirqasimov and many others.
"The idea of the project to restore and exhibit the posters came from film expert and graduate of the cinematography faculty Rashad Gasimov", - said director of the State Film Foundation Jamil Guliyev.
Some missing posters were brought from the stores of other countries. In all, about 60 posters have been restored at the State Film Foundation and it is planning to release a catalogue in the future. Many Azerbaijani posters are also held by the Russian Film Foundation and it is planned to bring copies to Azerbaijan in the future. The exhibition was both colourful and interesting.