Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The presentation of the “Objective Baku: Hitler's War on Oil” documentary, produced by chief producer Arzu Aliyeva will be held at the Heydar Aliyev Center on May 4.

The film, financed by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation is dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Victory over Nazism.

Louis Vaudeville is the producer of the film and Robert Mugnerot is its director.

The plot of the documentary reveals the role of Azerbaijan and its people in defeating Nazism and the strategic importance of the Azerbaijani oil during the war.

In the course of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), some 700,000 Azerbaijanis were called to the army. A total of 400,000 men never made it back home.

But Azerbaijan did not just contribute to the war with its human resources. The role of Azerbaijan oil in the victory should not be underestimated. Over 70 percent of the Soviet crude oil was produced in Baku. It means that seven out of Russia's ten tanks or war planes were fueled by Baku’s ‘black gold’.

Commenting on the film Arzu Aliyeva said: “The 70th anniversary of the Victory over Nazism will be celebrated on May 9. The Soviet Union won the war thanks to Baku's oil.”

The documentary main goal is to convey the message about Azerbaijan’s heroic history to the world, as well as to the country’s youth, the chief producer noted.

“On the other hand, this is homage to the Azerbaijani population as it suffered the grievous impact of the war and forged a hard-earned victory both at the frontline and in the rear,” she concluded.

The documentary was jointly produced by the Baku Media Center and the Clarke Costelle & Co. production company.

It is worth noting that the Clarke Costelle & Co’s another documentary “Apocalypse: The Second World War”, screened in 171 countries, gathered a total audience exceeding one billion viewers.

The “Objective Baku” film took 14 months of substantial research in Azerbaijan, Germany, the U.S., the UK, France and Russia, with over 200 hours of video materials, photographs and scrutinized documents.

The film provides a totally new approach to the history of WWII, looking through the prism of oil. The documentary also features some unique video snapshots of the WWII. The battles have been shot in a totally new format - restored color film.

Along with the Azerbaijani version, the Russian, English, French, German and Italian versions of the documentary are also available.

After the presentation at the Heydar Aliyev Center, the film is expected to be screened at the National Geographic channel in 26 countries on May 8, 9 and 10.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz