A few days ago, the premiere of the feature film “Taghiyev: Oil” took place at the Heydar Aliyev Center. While watching the film, you can feel the immense effort, good organization, high-quality financing, and technical support behind it. One of the project’s advantages is that the technical and creative teams mainly consist of our national specialists. This is important because a large-scale project like this provides invaluable experience to our filmmakers. The film demonstrated that our professionals are capable of working with perseverance and quality on major projects. In this sense, I congratulate the entire team.
Now, about the creative side of the film. First of all, I would like to congratulate the film’s art director, Sabuhi Atababayev. Sabuhi is talented, professional, intellectual, an excellent teacher, and deeply passionate about his work. In the film, his collaboration with cinematographer Vladimir Artemyev was exceptionally organic. The film showed that we have good cinematographers, and there is no need to invite someone from abroad.
As for the acting performances, I cannot say much in praise of Parviz Mammadrezayev, who played the young Taghiyev. It seemed to me that Parviz did not fully grasp the concept of his character; his performance was formal and unconvincing (to be honest, I don’t consider Parviz an outstanding actor). Despite being a central figure in the story, his character didn’t dominate the screen. Of course, this can also be attributed to the director’s lack of experience in feature films and certain issues in the script.
The performance that stood out the most to me was Yusif Gasimov, who played Rajabali. It was my first time seeing him, and he has a cinematic presence and a memorable face. Rovshan Aghayev and Manaf Dadashov also made strong impressions with their performances.
Now, let’s talk about the director’s work (Zaur Gasimli) and the screenplay (Ismail Imam, Asif Iskanderli, and Zaur Gasimli). I have a few suggestions for the director and the screenwriters: read Sid Field’s book “Screenplay.” I’m sure you’ve already read it, but I suggest reading it again and paying particular attention to the adaptation chapter. Also, take a look at Nadir Badalov’s book “Cinema Between the Eye and the Word,” where you’ll find concise and clear analyses of screenplay concepts.
In his speech, Zaur Gasimli mentioned that it’s hard for him to speak because his language is the language of cinema. Let me offer a small correction: your language isn’t quite the language of cinema yet. It’s a mix of cinema language and commercial or music video styles. Watch more films, but don’t just watch—study the material thoroughly, master it deeply. And please, find the distinction between the theme and the story.
There is one more point about the film “Taghiyev: Oil” that I would like to mention. It was obvious that the creative team was influenced by Paul Thomas Anderson’s film “There Will Be Blood.” This influence was evident, primarily in the depiction of the oil well drilling process, Taghiyev’s office, and the overall work environment.
In Anderson’s film, an accident occurs during the drilling of an oil well, and the oil baron’s son loses his hearing. In “Taghiyev,” there is also an accident, where one of the workers is injured, and Taghiyev’s son, who witnesses the event, goes into shock. The influence of “There Will Be Blood” is felt in this scene, though with some modifications.
In “There Will Be Blood,” the main conflict unfolds between the oil baron and the preacher. In “Taghiyev,” the conflict between the religious figure and Taghiyev is just one of several conflicts, but our screenwriters did not manage to develop this conflict deeply enough.
In conclusion, it should be noted that “Taghiyev: Oil” is an ambitious attempt to tell the story of a significant figure in Azerbaijan’s history, linking it to the theme of oil. The film has its strengths, such as solid technical support and the involvement of national specialists, whose work is undoubtedly inspiring. However, despite the technical precision and visual execution, the creative side needs more attention to detail. The characters require more depth, the script’s conflicts need to be developed more thoroughly, and the language of the film should evolve to truly speak the language of cinema, rather than remaining a mix of advertising and music video formats. Nonetheless, this is an important step for our cinematography, and there are undoubtedly many opportunities for growth and improvement ahead.
