Ru Hasanov’s “The Island Within” co-produced by Debut Film Studios became the first full-length Azerbaijani feature film to selected for the main competition of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
With an audience of more than 100,000, the Sarajevo Film Festival is one of the most important film festivals in Europe.
The jury of feature competition program running from August 14 to 21 of 2020 will be presided over by Michel Hazanavicius, the French writer-director behind Oscar-winner “The Artist”. He will be joined by Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian; Croatian actress Jadranka Đokić; Serbian director Srdan Golubović; and Morelia film festival head of industry and training projects Andrea Stavenhagen.
“The Island Within”, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a joint production of “Azerbaijanfilm” State Film Studio, Debut Film Studios, Arizona Productions, Coyote Cinema and Mandarin Agency). Post-production support has been provided by CNC – National Centre for Cinema and Animation of France and Baku Media Center, media support by the Public Television of Azerbaijan (ITV).
The film’s protagonist Seymur Tahirbeyov is one of the world’s leading chess grandmasters. A few weeks before the most important game of his career, he secretly travels to an island inhabited by a just one resident in order to rediscover himself.
“The Island Within” is written and directed by Ru Hasanov. Director of photography of the film is Orkhan Abbasoff, production designer – Elturan Mammadov, composers – Katya Yonder and Farhad Farzali, sound editor – Teymur Karimov, first assistant director – Kamran Agabalayev, executive producer is Nadir Aliyev. The lead cast of the film are Orkhan Ata, Vidadi Hasanov, Gurban Ismayilov, Rafig Azimov and Elvin Adigozel.
