Commendation of the Ecumenical Jury, Cottbus 2022

The residents of Davud and Baci's village have died from a mysterious plague. The two surviving young people mourn and struggle to survive. Aided by epic imagery, shot in the oil fields and desert landscapes of the Azerbaijan plains, Hilal Baydarov generates high production value on but a minimal budget. Contemplative depth develops behind the dystopian surface, behind the trauma of the protagonists the realisation that the war they won ended in a pyrrhic victory, behind their mourning a longing for hope, for salvation. (Bernd Buder/Festival information, Cottbus 2022)