Xurmalar Yetişən Vaxt
In the village of the Azerbaijani filmmaker Hilal Baydarov, time is still regulated by the land. Like every summer, Baydarov and his brother join their mother who has remained alone in the family house. It is the persimmon season and the village’s inhabitants come together around this fruit, its harvest, its preparation, its storage. A happy reunion for the filmmaker’s family, which also evokes the solitude that his mother will face at the end of the season. Fascinated by the mystery of gestures, Baydarov films the bodies of his loved ones like a sort of sublime choreography of the day-to-day. He thus presents the intimacy in which he tackles the harrowing sentiment of having abandoned his house, his family and the land on which he grew up. (Festival information, Nyon 2019)
A cinematic soulscape – in poetic images and still lifes we get to know a mother who has the ability to remember what really counts. During the persimmon harvest she philosophises with her son about the fruits of life. With a penetrating eye, the Azerbaijani director succeeds in interweaving linear time with the moment, capturing for eternity the joys of everyday life.