Tekbetek (Лезги Аялар)

Follow me on instagram Azerbaijani director Ismail Safarali graduated from the Moscow School of New Cinema, many of whose students had their shorts in competitions at Cannes and Locarno this year. In Tekbetek, our short film of the month, it feels that the director is coming close to finding his own language in film. Tekbetek takes place in a semi-abandoned village in Azerbaijan, bordering Dagestan. Safarali illuminates beauty not only where it is obvious, in the landscape of the region, but also in the faces of the people, in the ways in which they behave and hold themselves together, despite their difficult lives. The whole film is shot on hand-held camera, and follows on the heels of the young protagonist, enabling the audience to observe what is happening through his eyes. In spite of the boy’s isolation, his inner world does not seem crippled — he has his own secrets, which he treasures dearly in a tin box, his own amusements such as football, which he sha