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On October 23, presentation of the movie-project “Baku, I love you”, realized with support from the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, took place at the Heydar Aliyev Center.

Head of the project, Vice-president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva attended the ceremony. Before the presentation, Leyla Aliyeva met producers of the project – Yegor Mikhalkov-Konchalovski and Nadir Machanov – and congratulated the creative team on the premiere.

One of the producers of the movie, Yegor Mikhalkov-Konchalovski, making a speech before the premiere, shared his thoughts. Saying he has worked in Azerbaijan over a year, the producer said antiquity and contemporariness coexisted here. It is an old Baku, on the one hand, and a day-by-day developing Baku, on the other. Saying” I very much enjoyed my job during the shootings. When we started our first shootings, the Heydar Aliyev Center was still under construction. And today, I’m filled with the feeling of pride as the premiere of the movie “Baku, I love you” takes place here, in such a nice place, the Center, named after genius Heydar Aliyev”,- emphasized the producer of the movie-project.

“Baku, I love you. To be soon introduced, the movie has been created from this love. It is impossible not to love this city. I would like to thank President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva and Foundation’s Vice-president Leyla Aliyeva for the support we have enjoyed in the realization of the project. I would also like to thank Baku and its citizens“.

The host of the evening gave comprehensive information about the movie-project. It was mentioned that so far such similar movie-projects as “Paris, I love you”, “New-York, I love you” and “Moscow, I love you” were realized in the world. “Baku, I love you” is a kind of continuation of the movies created in this direction.

Produced at “Mosfilm” cinema concern, the project “Baku, I love you” is comprised of 10 nine-minute short films based on short stories ( “Asia”, “Meeting”, “Artist”, “Yard”, “Bahram Gur”, “Khazar Atlantis”, “Lottery-ticket” “About Love”, “Aysel”, “Event”). Movie directors are Yegor Mikhalkov-Konchalovski, Nadir Machanov, Aleksey Golubev , Andrey Razenkov (Russia), Alexander Fodor (Great Britain), Andre Badalo (Spain), Nargiz Baghyrzadeh, Ilgar Safat, Samir Karimoghlu and Yaver Rzayev (Azerbaijan). Short stories’ screenwriters are Nadir Machanov, Yaver Rzayev, Ilgar Safat, Samir Karimoghlu, Nargiz Baghyrzadeh and Alexander Novotoski.

Movie’s preparation process started in November 2011. Shootings started on 12 March 2012. The shootings took place in 2 sessions. 5 movies were shot in each of the sessions covering March-April and June-July months. The movie-almanac’s camera crew consisted of 138 persons. Over 150 actors and actresses took part in the project “Baku, I love you”, taking into account mass scenes.

Actors and actresses from Italy, the Great Britain, Turkey, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania and Uzbekistan acted in this movie – which took ninety days to accomplish - alongside People’s artists of Azerbaijan Rasim Balayev, Mabud Maharramov, Lalezar Mustafayeva, as well as Honoured artists Shamil Suleymanly, Bahram Baghyrzadeh, Ayshad Mammadov, Sanubar Iskandarli and others. Among them are such well-known persons as Alessandro Bertolucci, Asia Argento, Nadira Murray, Agnia Ditkovskite, Vadim Tsallati, Vyacheslav Razbegayev and Tatyana Rujavskaya.

Watched with great interest, each of the films reflects different moments of Baku life. The short films revive relationship between people, their love and longing, and joyful and sad moments. Baku city is the main character combining these people, relations, and different moments of life. The movie is also a declaration of love for Baku from the actors and directors’ standpoint.

At the presentation ceremony, first were demonstrated frames reflecting the shooting process.

Then the movie was presented.