Man in a blue sweater
Teymur Hajiyev
Fil Production
A middle-aged photographer undergoes a strange ritual in order to connect to his wife, who untimely passed away after a close encounter with the mysterious creature called guleybani.
ARIF mourns his beloved wife’s untimely death. Like Orpheus from ancient Greek legend, he decides to get in touch with her in the other world. To achieve this, he travels to the end of Absheron peninsula and gives himself into the hands of a blind old man SAID, who performs an obscure ritual along with his enigmatic female assistant BANOVSHA. Second chapter starts with Arif and LEYLI driving to the remote village where her relatives live. From their conversation, we understand that a mysterious creature called guleybani has started visiting the village. It becomes clear that Leyli was summoned to the village in order to participate in the ritual of food offering to pacify it. Leyli has some special abilities that bind her not only to her husband, but also to this mysterious creature. We witness gradual changes in Leyli, her leaning towards the otherworld, and increased suffering. Because, in order to perform the duty, she has to leave the person she loves the most.
Director’s biography: Teymur Hajiyev / IMDb
TEYMUR HAJIYEV was born in Baku, Azerbaijan. BSc in Economic Cybernetics (Baku) and MBA in Marketing from West Texas A&M University. Before moving into filmmaking, TeymurHa worked as Marketing Director in various commercial entities in Azerbaijan. Teymur premiered his directing debut short, THE WOUND, at the Palm Springs ShortsFest in 2013. His 2nd short SHANGHAI, BAKU premiered at Tampere FF (2016) and his 3rd short, SALT, PEPPER TO TASTE premiered at IFF Rotterdam (2019).The inclusion of TOWARDS EVENING in the Semaine de la Critique makes Teymur the only Azerbaijani-filmmaker to have been at Cannes.
Producer’s biography: Eva Blonidau / IMDb
EVA BLONIDAU graduated with a Magister from the university in Bonn in the subjects North American Studies and History. graduated from the ifs international film school in Cologne in 2012 with her production of Elmar Imanov's The Swing of the Coffin Maker. She founded her production company COLOR OF MAY together with Elmar Imanov in 2013. Together they also founded the company MAISIS PERI in Tbilisi, Georgia. EAVE member, Producer on the Move 2019 and EFA member.
Where are we at?
Total estimated budget: 411.000 €
Finances pending: 211.000 €
Financing in place: 200.000 €
Production timeline
Development/Financing: until summer 2022
Preparation: summer 2021-summer 2022
Production: summer 2022
Post-production: autumn 2022
Delivery: beginning 2023
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Director’s statement
Through the film about two souls linked together, I am planning to tell a story that reveals their never-ending search for themselves, coexistence, and patterns of predestination. Its simple yet powerful two-part structure will allow me to juxtapose not only the everyday and metaphysical aspects of our being, but also to show the mundane life of simple people bound by the rules of the contemporary society. Nowadays, we all feel a colossal sense of uncertainty. As a result, “Man in a Blue Sweater” is full of incertitude over the course of the story and only the unbending intent of my protagonists despite all odds pushes them forward. I am confident that this film can be a strong and disturbing cinematic experience depicting timeframe we all are manifested in: our hopes, fears and incessant quest of our roots; acting as a mental cartography for both local and international seekers following the trajectory of self-exploration.
Producer’s statement
Teymur is one of those people who never attended a film school, is self-taught, but developed his own signature as a filmmaker early on. His will to make films is unconditional. He manages to write scripts himself, raise funds, then shoot his own films and also get them into festivals. I say that with great respect. Teymur also has the courage to find talented people around him, he has co-wrote and co-directed with Elmar Imanov, his DOP is Evgeniy Rodin (who has had a short film in Cannes recently) etc. At the same time, Teymur is a film activist who has helped pave the way for film funding. For this, he received an award from the Azerbaijan Film Academy. Teymur has managed to develop a cinematic style all his own, atmospheric and with great sensitivity. Even the unspoken finds meaningful space in Teymur's films. Man in a Blue Sweater is a mystical journey, which is closely linked to the origin of the director. Mysticism has been familiar to the people of Caucasus for millennia.
Production company profile
FIL PRODUCTION is an Azerbaijani boutique arthouse production company. Founded in 2013 it has already coproduced several award-winning short films, including TORN (Official Selection at Cannes Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) and TOWARDS EVENING (Official Selection at Cannes Semaine de la Critique).; COLOR OF MAY produces/co-produces nationally/internationally documentaries/fiction films, life stories with a particular point of view, able to enlighten strangeness and seize familiarity in a new light.
Email: teymur@filproduction.com
Email: blondiau@colorofmay.com