Nabat: Azerbaijani entry continues Post-Soviet Cinema series

credit photo Nabat, Elchin Musaoglu (2014)

Each day Nabat makes the way along rugged mountain roads from her small, isolated village to another, to sell milk from a solitary cow.

Her husband, an ex-forestry worker, is bedridden. Her son has perished in a war that creeps ever closer to her village, which is increasingly deserted.

Following her husband's death, Nabat is alone on the last frontier— a woman on the brink of existence.

Armed conflict in Azerbaijan

Nabat addresses the consequences of the armed conflict in Azerbaijan which began in 1988 until a cease-fire in 1994, and remains diplomatically unresolved to this day. By keeping the conflict in the background, and studying only its consequences, Musaoglu offers a rare window into the human dramas that unfold in the most isolated reaches of Azerbaijani— particularly in the lives of its women

Nabat premiered at Venice, Chicago, Dhaka, Tokyo and Mannheim-Heidelberg, where it won both the FIPRESCI Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. Nabat was selected as the Azerbaijani entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards.

Filmatique

Filmatique's Post-Soviet Cinema Series continues with Nabat, Azerbaijani filmmaker Elchin Musaoglu's second feature that premiered at Venice.