An interview with filmmaker Ayaz Salayev

Ayaz Salayev is a film director. In 1995 he made the film Yarasa (the Bat) with private financing; the film was entered in 25 film festivals, won the Grand Prix at the International Film Festival in Angers, France and was screened in movie theaters in Paris, Montreal, Berlin, and Zurich.

Salayev has never collaborated with state filmmaking. He pins his hopes for the development of the cinematographic art not on state patronage but on the evolution of a national bourgeoisie.

-Has the Karabakh conflict had an impact on culture?

-The impact is enormous, especially on filmmaking; personally, I would rather it had less of an impact. I can only speak about the art of filmmaking, and I've made a number of films on the subject. Virtually the entire spectrum of attitudes toward the conflict - patriotic, pacifist, sardonic - is represented in Azerbaijani cinema. There are many reasons for that, two of which stand out. First, conflicts have to be plucked from somewhere, but it is not really permitted to pluck them out of modern "civil life". Second, a very important reason, it seems to me, is the new international conjuncture that has replaced the Soviet conjuncture. Because a film which addresses the Karabakh problem and manages to sound just one note of pacifism has every chance of being awarded various social or pacifist prizes at the international festivals. But today a real, deep understanding of this subject is hardly possible, in my opinion. Remember, the best movies about the World War II began to appear in Soviet cinema some ten years after it was over. This subject, as they say, has to "sustain a pause". That is why in the coming years I, personally, will not address this subject under any circumstances. It is better to keep silent than to speculate.

-Let's talk about the theme of patriotism in culture.

-Some one, I think Tolstoy, said patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. Seeing how some people speculate on this subject one begins to understand what the writer had in mind. I, personally, am for an absolutely free culture; genuine culture can "serve" no, not even the most imposing, idea.

-To what extent has the Karabakh conflict promoted the emergence of new works in literature and cinema?

-The Karabakh conflict in its nature belongs to the most widespread and primitive conflicts. It's a territorial conflict. In such cases the oldest layers in peoples' consciousness open up-the ones that took shape in times when one tribe would fight with another over a biosphere. But at the same time we have to remember that the conflict was preceded by decades of the joint life of the two peoples. Children born in mixed marriages take part in the conflict as well. All of this brings forward a duality, which is also reflected in art. But the word "promote" used in your question is out of place, in my opinion. The Karabakh conflict is a hindrance in the path of the development of the two states. It's hindrance to science, culture, art, among other things. Thus, for example, the conflict has caused huge damage to historical science-historians have been forced to expend all their efforts to prove that their own people was more ancient, and so many more important things have become marginal. The civilized world today is occupied with other problems, but no time is left for them.

-Is collaboration between Armenian and Azerbaijani filmmakers possible?

-In the sphere of documentary films it's absolutely possible and, even necessary. I, myself, took part in the project At a Crossroads: No Peace, No War. [This project, aimed at providing an accurate picture of the stereotypes both propagandized and widely held among Armenian and Azerbaijan societies, was carried out in 2004-2005 by the Region Research Center of the Investigative Journalists NGO (Armenia) in partnership with the Institute of Peace and Democracy (Azerbaijan)]. As far as feature films are concerned I, personally, don't see any sense in such collaboration. And it's not only because of the conflict. I simply don't think that Armenian and Azerbaijani filmmakers have anything to offer each other. For both, collaboration with American, European, or Iranian cinematographs would be more useful.

-What ideas should future generations be brought up on?

-An aspiration towards professionalism and an aversion to dilettantism should be cultivated. Including issues related to a professional army. One should prevail through professionalism, not through "national hatred". The attitude toward the Armenians is an attitude toward a nation with which we have a territorial problem, not toward God's mistake. It is extremely important for both sides to understand one thing: reality is always more rich, more complex and unpredictable than any theoretical notion of it. In my opinion the far-fetched notion of the Azerbaijanis as a nation submissively carrying out any whim of Moscow's allowed the other side to raise the Karabakh problem and to hope that it would be quickly and peacefully resolved. From this point of view, one might say that the conflict has enriched our notions of each other.