Films on global diversity, flamenco and photo exhibitions in spotlight at Azerbaijan’s IMAGINE festival

The third IMAGINE Euro Tolerance Festival has begun in Azerbaijan.

For two weeks from May 1 to May 15, Baku residents will be able to watch about 30 films and documentaries on the topic of tolerance and cultural dialogue.

The popularization of these values ​​is the main goal of the festival, organized by the delegation of the European Union in Azerbaijan.

In addition to film screenings, the festival will host several concerts and photo exhibitions. The first festival event was the performance of the Chilean-Belgian saxophonist Marcelo Moncada, who gave a concert at the Icheri Sheher metro station.

Film Festival

The film program of the festival includes films from famous directors from France, Latvia, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Here are some of them:

The Cellist is a romantic drama by Finnish director Paavo Westerberg. The main character of the film is forced to abandon her stellar career. She becomes a music teacher and falls in love with one of her students. While she is significantly older than this young man, they share a passion for music.

The Color of the Chameleon is a documentary by Andres Lubbert which speaks about his father, the war photographer Jorge Lubberth, who fled from Chile during the time of the Pinochet dictatorship. Many years later, he travels to his abandoned country and dark past.

Sasha is a short Polish drama by Katarzyna Lesisz, based on the novel by Etgar Keret. In just 27 minutes, she introduces the audience to the story of a young Ukrainian woman who has entered into a fake marriage in order to receive a Polish visa.

Film directors included in the festival programme will meet with the audience, give master classes and chat with students.

Other events

In addition to performing in the subway, Marcelo Moncada will give a concert in the jazz club Ratunda together with musical bands Brasilidade, created by Brazilian producer and musician Claudio Franco together with Azerbaijani performers.

In the same jazz club there will be a concert of Spanish guitarist El-Amir, playing flamenco and Mediterranean motifs.

Portuguese singer Magda Mendez will perform at the Nizami cinema.

The organizers took care of the accessibility of the festival to the general public, therefore the entrance to almost all events is free.

The innovation of the festival this year is that it will also “touch” the city of Ganja in the west of Azerbaijan – there will also be several events there.

You can find out when and where you can join in on the festival’s activates at www.imagine.az.