Jafar Jabarli and Hamo Bek-Nazarov. Our Glorious Past
The most honorable young people of our nations have had numerous achievements together. We told only about one movie and reminded of one of the most popular songs by the Baku Armenian composer Andrei Babayev which is sung by the Azerbaijani singer Rashid Beybutov. I am convinced that if any of us thinks back we could recall the good, and this is what we need to leave for the future generations to inherit.
Leyla Yunus
Ph.D. in History
Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy
Jafar and Amo
“Departure of Armenians from Azerbaijan is the same loss for us as so is departure of Azerbaijanis from Armenia for Armenians. Our enemy is not Armenian people, but the reactionary government of Armenia. And I am sure that normal and non-aggressive attitude towards Armenians living in Azerbaijan who became victims of aggression as did we, will help solve Karabakh problem”, Rustam Ibragimbekov
Falsification of history is one of the topical issues in Armenia and Azerbaijan. History textbooks say nothing about our mutually shared wonderful past; instead, textbooks exaggerate the so-called historic enmity, hatred and blood. ‘Historians’ of both countries work ‘hard’. We will tell you only one episode of the glorious and very recent past shared by the two nations.
Year 1929
“Sevil” play written by Jafar Jabbarly is a big success.
“I cannot recall any other play to stir such emotions of the audience. I myself saw girls and women throwing Muslim veils off after the performance and leaving the theatre with open faces. Not only in Baku, but also in many other cities and villages of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan…”, says Amo Ivanovitch Bek-Nazarov, one of the famous actors of silent movies, film director, founder of the cinematography of Armenia.
In 1929 he would often visit his Azerbaijani colleagues. In his memoirs he writes, “One evening Jafar Jabbarly came to my hotel room.
“Amo Ivanovitch, I have to talk to you seriously”, he said
“OK”, I replied
“Not all our women have thrown veils off. There are so many fathers and husbands who do not want to recognize the right of women to labor and freedom. But we have few theatres which can seat not many people. My “Sevil” needs bigger auditorium than a theatre can. Let us together write a scenario on my play, and you will stage it in Baku”.
And they wrote and made a movie which entered a gold heritage of the cinematography of our nations
The first showing of the movie on the 3rd of September 1929
V. Pudovkin, J. Jabbarly, A.I.Bek-Nazarov, time-off on the set of the film “Sevil”
Projectionists took the movie “Sevil” to most remote mountainous villages of Azerbaijan
In 1964, a year before his death, Amo Ivanovitch wrote in his memoirs to pay tribute to his friends and colleagues from Azerbaijan, “… 35 years passed but Jafar Jabbarly still lives in my memory as if never died. I always recall with deep appreciation the years of my joint work with this great writer of Azerbaijan ….”
Photo Amo Bek-Nazarov and Jafar Jabarly together for 35 years
Photo Amo Bek-Nazarov and Tejmyr Useynov together for 37 years
The cinema studio in Armenia bears the name of Amo Bek-Nazarov
The cinema studio in Azerbaijan bears the name of Jafar Jabbarly
“My logic is that if vicious men are together and this togetherness brings but power, then honest men must do but the same. So easy it is”.
Leo Tolstoy “War and peace”