Azerbaijan's Cinematographers Union protests Cannes Film Festival

2 July 2020 12:57 (UTC+04:00)

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By Akbar Mammadov

The Board of the Union of Azerbaijani Cinematographers has sent a letter of protest to French Ambassador France Zacharie Gross and the leadership of the Cannes International Film Festival over a film presented to the festival.

The film in question includes events taking place in the Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani territories and serves to strengthen the feeling of hostility towards our country and people, the union’s press service Ali Valiyev told Azertag on July 1.

The film ‘Should the wind fall’ (‘Si Le Vent Tombe’) has been made by th Armenian director Nora Martirosyan.

Valiyev also noted that the film will be shown in Venice, New York, Deauville, Toronto, San Sebastian, Angouleme, Busan and Lyon.

“Createros of this film do not want to hide their intention to expand the scope of the film to further inflame hostility between peoples and to increase hatred against Azerbaijan and our people, who long to return to their native lands,” Valiyev said.

He stressed that in this regard, the Union of Cinematographers will do everything possible to prevent the screening of the film at the Cannes Film Festival, which aims to impose the notorious ideological intentions of the so-called regime, that is not recognized by the international community, the UN and international organizations, on the French public and citizens of other countries.

Earlier, on June 12, the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan also protested the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival over the film screened by Armenia in occupied Karabakh.

It should be noted that the Khojaly airport featured in the film was first put into operation in Azerbaijan's same-named city occupied by Armenia on 26 February 1992. As a result of the occupation, the airport stopped its operation for air communication.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97