Cinema
Interrogation
İstintaq
Rasim Ojagov · 1980
Synopsis
Captain Seyfi Ganiev is investigating the case of Murad Abiyev, owner of a clandestine haberdashery workshop, who has confessed to embezzling a million roubles. He is also accused of the murder of a teenage girl in Riga; he denies it, but refuses to name those he knows to be responsible, although he risks the death penalty. The investigator senses highly placed protectors behind him, and his superiors press him to close the file, whereas he wants the whole truth.
Context
The screenplay is by Rüstəm İbrahimbəyov, the cinematography by Rafiq Qəmbərov and the music by Emin Sabitoğlu. Aleksandr Kalyagin plays the investigator and Həsən Məmmədov the accused, alongside Şəfiqə Məmmədova and Rasim Balayev. An opening title card sets the action on the eve of the republican plenum of 1969, which condemned the “negative phenomena” and brought Heydər Əliyev to power. Shot in Russian, the film was presented in Moscow in April 1980; Kalyagin publicly thanked Əliyev there for having made it possible.
Who it is for
A little under an hour and a half, in Russian; a courtroom drama held together by its dialogue rather than an action film.
Prizes and reception
Grand Prize for fiction films at the thirteenth All-Union Film Festival in 1980, then the USSR State Prize in 1981.