SƏPƏLƏNMİŞ ÖLÜMLƏR ARASINDA (In Between Dying) directed by Hilal Baydarov (Azerbaijan – Mexico – USA, 2020)

This strange and melancholy film , presented on the opening day of the 2021 Trieste Film Festival,  is a road movie about love and death.

The action follows a single and highly eventful day in the life of a single man, Davud, who, bored with caring for his aging and ailing mother, takes to his scooter in search of something more thrilling and fulfilling. The problem, and it’s no small one,  is that wherever he goes a death occurs.

Director Hilal Baydarov says:   “A central concern in all my work is the person who is trying to understand the reason he is alive, present, here, in this world. The person who can‘t love, yet only believes in love. The person who is trying to find his real family, certain that this will bring real meaning to his life.”

The setting is Azerbaijan, a country beset with many restrictions. These is presumably why powerful emotions and religious motifs are expressed so metaphorically rather than literally. Some of the metaphors seem obvious, others are more obscure. One thing is sure, you won’t find much social realism here. 

Cinematically, there are many long shots of figures in landscape. The haunting ambient soundtrack by Kənan Rüstəmli helps to give substance and a sense of visual poetry to the scenes.

Alone in the landscape – One man, one scooter and a tree

There are lots of open spaces, plenty of  bad weather and numerous muddy fields. The landscape is often more bleak than beautiful. There are many shots of trees which I guess can be variously interpreted as symbols of growth, stability and gradual change. 

The whole surreal picaresque journey begins when Davud shoots and kills a man selling weed. His only motive seems to be that he is defending his girl friend’s honor after the dealer has called her a bitch. Davud escapes on his scooter pursued by three men who, it soon transpires, who are not the brightest bulbs in the box. They have shitty cars and poor organisational skills so it’s no surprise that Davud remains at large. Continue reading →