Shanghai, Baku (short film about realities of Azerbaijan) | Şanxay, Bakı

Shangai is an outlying part of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and it is here that Teymur Hajiyev sets his short film with an improvised rhythm, with shots that seem casual and stolen by the main character, but supported by an intelligent screenplay. The whole film is told in the first person by a nosy boy who films with his camera in the middle of his relations, always welcomed by a proverbial affection; “Filmmaker son of a bitch, didn’t I tell you to throw that contraption away?” his father tells him, for example. The pieces shot by chance, however, form a story and the elliptical leaps of the story from one bit of junk footage to another force the viewer to reconstruct the story of a love intrigue and blackmail. The apparent jumble, in retrospect becomes the pace of a haphazard way of life, between vodka and insults, familiar to anyone who enjoys a certain type of Russian literature. Alessandro Beretta (Milano Film Festival)