The master of Soviet cinema, one of the creators of the "White Sun of the Desert" - 75

The master of Soviet cinema, one of the creators of the "White Sun of the Desert" - 75

East is a delicate matter

He was born and raised in Baku, although his father comes from Shamakhi, where in ancient times people of different nationalities lived together. And in Baku of the Soviet era, the whimsical drawing of the ethnic mosaic created not only a unique atmosphere, way of life, its own traditions and customs, but also a fantastic breeding ground. Today, the legendary city is inhabited by residents of rural areas, who were forced to leave their places of residence for many reasons, and, above all, because of the military conflict with Armenia. “In fact,” Ibragimbekov objects, “about half a million real Baku residents continue to live there, who have retained their spirit and love for the city, but they have ceased to define the face of the city and this is hardly fixable. Comparing, for example, our city with Yerevan, I always believed that multinational Baku was in a more advantageous position. Because steel is iron with an admixture of additives that give it durability. Here's what guys. I won't give you a machine gun.

Ibragimbekov's article "For Whom the Bell Tolls" had the effect of a bombshell. In it, he challenges the corrupt system that has developed in Azerbaijan, speaks with bitterness about the immensity of financial abuse, violation of rights, about power corrupted by the silence and obedience of the people. Such things are not forgiven. Even more shocking was the information about the writer's decision to run for the presidency of Azerbaijan as a single candidate from the opposition National Council of Democratic Forces. The large-scale campaign to discredit Ibragimbekov instantly took on the character of harassment. “Why,” I ask him, “would an artist go into politics, and even in a country with an ambiguous political situation?” I receive a paradoxical answer: “And even today I don’t think that I went into politics. Back in 2008, I wrote the story "Addition of Waves", in it and in other works I tried to tell the truth about what is happening in the country. For a while, it got away with it. But since 1997, what is usually called public opinion has been actually destroyed in Baku. The established regime is formally called democratic, in fact, it is a pronounced authoritarianism that does not accept other opinions.

Completely brutalized Black Abdullah! He spares neither his own nor others.

“Writer Akram Aylisli wrote a story that can be seriously argued with. Instead, he was stripped of all awards, and his books were burned. How could you not speak up for him? But this happened later... A year or two earlier, at my suggestion, several remarkable people began to meet and discuss the sore problems of society - a poet beloved by the people, an outstanding scientist, a historian of world renown, the same Aylisli ... This is how the Forum of Intelligentsia arose. Then, according to my idea, the National Council of Democratic Forces was convened. For the first time in 20 years, all opposition parties have united.” The initiative is punishable: those who could not agree agreed on the neutral figure of Ibragimbekov, persuading him to become chairman of the Council. But the election campaign in Azerbaijan is obviously unsuccessful. The government has huge financial and administrative resources. According to official information, the incumbent President Ilham Aliyev won a crushing victory in the 2013 elections (more than 84%)

Ibragimbekov has a different point of view: “In fact, this is a Pyrrhic victory. The whole world knows this. The Office for Democratic Institutions (ODIHR) of the OSCE, which has the legal right to evaluate the elections, cast doubt on the results of the elections in Azerbaijan, registering violations at 58% of polling stations. There are credible documents confirming that ballots were thrown in by the hundreds in front of stunned onlookers.”

The elite part of the Azerbaijani intelligentsia, under political pressure, essentially surrendered. Even 10 years ago, Ibragimbekov wrote that a country without an elite has no future. Corrupt, departmental, related, parochial considerations take over, and mediocre people rise up the career ladder. Independent thinkers are on the sidelines of life. “I came up with a good, as it seems to me, image,” says Rustam, “we often complain about the fact that part of our territory is seized by a foreign state. But we do not notice that the whole country is captured by people with very low IQ. Alas, the vast majority of people who could raise their voices are silent. I understand them, seeing what they did to me (there is no need to tell the details). And a huge army of teachers, engineers, doctors is forced to remain silent, because they are immediately thrown out into the street. Today, being an oppositionist in Azerbaijan is heroism. With all the serious problems of our opposition, which fights within itself with no less ardor than with the authorities, it is impossible not to pay tribute to it, seeing what sophisticated persecution it is subjected to. How to stop the humanitarian catastrophe that has engulfed a country in which the literary language has existed since the 11th century? After all, out of a hundred bookstores, according to Ibragimbekov, only three or four remained in Baku, and libraries are being closed one after another across the country.

Mahmoud, fire up!

It seems that everything is known about the creation of the megahit "White Sun ...". But so many bright artists turned out to be involved in this exciting story, each time you discover new twists and turns. Andron Konchalovsky wrote the script together with Friedrich Gorenstein, and he himself planned to shoot the Eastern, for which, after the success of The Elusive ..., there was a great demand. The script was disappointing. They decided to urgently organize a "rescue brigade". And at the experimental studio there was already Ibragimbekov's diploma script "In a Southern City", which caused a sharp controversy in Azerbaijan. Here is a gifted "polemicist" as a connoisseur of the East and was called as a co-author to Valentin Yezhov, the author of "The Ballad of a Soldier".

“I realized that if I confess that I have never been to Central Asia, they will not take me to the company. And I wanted to work with Yezhov and Konchalovsky.” It was at this time that they discovered Platonov's "Intimate Man" (the surname Sukhov is not accidentally consonant with the surname Pukhov). Acquaintance with the Platonic hero helped to compose the story of a decent Russian man - not a fighter, not a revolutionary - who found himself in the circumstances of the revolution and trying to behave like a man in a dramatic situation. To many, the idea of ​​a harem seemed overly exotic, far-fetched, but a few years after the release of the film, Ibragimbekov read in a newspaper about three Russian travelers who brought a caravan of slaves in Africa to the ocean and saved them. “Valentin Yezhov, a man of remarkable wit, began all discussions like this: “I want you to take into account right away that a harem is not a mess, but quite the opposite.” But the authors of the film's script continued to be accused of lowering the lofty theme of the revolution, defiling the image of the heroes of the Civil War ... And immediately after the collapse of the USSR, the film would be called a hymn to colonialism. Rave. Who did Sukhov colonize? The soldier wanted everything: to go home to his darling Katerina Matveevna, but he was forced to swallow sand, saving the “comrades of women” in the veil. But the film was invulnerable. His shield is boundless and timeless audience love. Ideological attacks and campaigns will be considered records in the history of the disease of the country and society.

How long have you been sitting here?

Ibragimbekov considers it a great success that the script fell into the hands of Vladimir Motyl, who undertook it forcibly - he was not allowed to stage a film about the Decembrists "The Star of Captivating Happiness." By the way, the film was offered to be shot by Konchalovsky, Zhalakyavichus, Chulyukin, Tarkovsky. Imagine how unexpected the “Sun” of a Russian Eastern could be. Yes, and the Sun? The film was called at first "Basmachi", then "Desert", "Save the Harem". The last name, with its frivolity, angered the head of the state cinema, Vladimir Baskakov, who demanded that a more neutral name be found. "Which?" the authors were interested. “Well, something like the White Sun of the Desert,” he drawled. “Baskakov also owns several lines that were included in the film,” recalls Rustam, “for example, he said: “You know, guys, you worked a little rudely. East is a delicate matter". Many catchphrases arose during the filming, which was difficult, the picture was stopped several times. But the experimental studio was economically arranged in such a way that it was impossible to close the film. It is known that in the initial version there was a tragic ending, and Vereshchagin's wife went crazy. “But even now she is walking along the shore in such an inadequate state,” says Ibragimbekov, “There is another funny thing. The script, published as a separate book at the same time as the film, contained a postscript. “A few years later, Sukhov, finding himself in the Hungry Steppe, again meets his “harem”. The women he freed remained inseparable. They worked as a friendly team of cement workers on the construction of the canal.

The picture is habitually called "cult". But "White Sun of the Desert" is, in fact, a cult film. The astronauts watched it before the flight, as if performing a rite of protection. “The film has become their talisman. He was taken on a flight, and they were also reviewed there. One of the cosmonauts told me how one day the lights went out, they were in a panic state, and suddenly a voice was heard: “Have you been sitting here for a long time?”, which frightened me even more. Then the TV screen lit up, it turned out - this is just the episode in which Sukhov addresses the old people frozen by the wall.

Sukhov, you say? .. Now we will see what kind of Sukhov he is.

I couldn't help but ask Rustam about the long chapter of life - many years of friendship - the struggle with Nikita Mikhalkov. “In 1971, I wrote the script for Nikita's graduation film, which I met through Andron Konchalovsky. For many years Nikita was a friend and co-author for me, everything was great, but when he became a public figure, it became clear that the essence of public activity was alien to him, and this led to the collapse of the Union of Cinematographers, a wonderful community that, unlike, say, a writer's was very friendly. So there was a discrepancy, strange as it sounds, ideological. At the same time, we maintain normal relations, and I have no hostile feelings towards him.” Nevertheless, Ibragimbekov refused to co-author in "Burnt by the Sun - 2". Mikhalkov, Balayan, Proshkin, Bodrov filmed according to his scripts... But the pictures shot in Baku by Rasim Ojagov are closest to him: “I confess to you that almost everything I write is connected with one topic. When I started, the whole world was enthusiastic about Antonioni's films. Many tried to imitate him, the main theme of art was the theme of incommunicability, the loneliness of a person. In general, the problem is eternal. In our country, however, something else was more relevant - the energetic involvement of a person in collective life, the mastery of his mentality. From kindergarten, the child was required to "actively participate". The environment itself was overactive, subordinating the personality. The main problem for us was the opposite: how to ensure that society does not break you, how to defend yourself, your individuality, worldview.

In fact, all his scenarios are about how a person tries to save himself and his loved ones, to jump off the inexorable social assembly line. “When you swam somewhere far away in the sea, surfaced - and saw the slogan “Communism is our goal.” No matter how far you swam, you were always given to understand - we are with you, our dear, do not forget about it. Now, in fact, little has changed. One ideological dictatorship has been replaced by another, but the methodology of life is about the same. The people who serve exclusively the purse have won. This is their country."

Gulchatay! Show your face

Among the films that, in Ibragimbekov's opinion, were successful, he singles out those made by Roman Balayan, and in the first place - "Keep me my talisman." He also appreciates Burnt by the Sun, believing that under a normal situation, such a picture could have been shot in Soviet times. “We haven’t taken the opportunity to slander the past in the slightest. Tried to be more or less honest about how strange life has been. Indeed, on the one hand, this is the most joyful day in the life of a little girl, on the other hand, the most terrible day of her life, because behind all the external holiday is a tragedy that broke the fate of her father, her, and the whole family. Until now, many still call Stalin a strong master, and Moloch, launched by him, is the most just system in the world. “I grew up in a family where everyone already knew,” says Ibragimbekov, “When Stalin died, I was 14. I came home in tears. Mom cut meat, and said to her father: "The mustachioed gave oak." I was indignant: “How can you! This is our leader! I always knew: you hate us!” “Who is “us?” Mom asked. “Us, the Soviets,” I said. To which the wise mother remarked: “Son, you will grow up and understand everything yourself.” Fortunately, our parents did not try to give us ready-made experience, which often happens in families of the intelligentsia.”

P.S.

Said, how did you get here? They shot...

— Rustam, the last question. Where is your home today? In Moscow, Los Angeles, Baku?

“When I came to the capital to study at the age of twenty-five, they asked me: “Have you moved to Moscow?” I answered: “No, I just live in Moscow. And if I have the opportunity to live in Paris, I will live in Paris. This does not mean that I will leave Baku.” During this time, and Moscow has become a hometown. And, unfortunately, it is not fashionable to talk about it now, but I have a “sovereign” mentality, I exist in a non-existent, sorry for the tautology, country. Coming to Riga, I don’t feel like I’m abroad, which offends my Riga friends very much. The same is true in Central Asia, and in Georgia, and everywhere. I visit America on average a month and a half a year. That's how I live. And I don't really expand my circle of friends. Now I'm going to New York, four of my comrades are flying there from different countries. People are no longer young. We will live in the same apartment. Lead a boyish lifestyle, as they did half a century ago. Most people, passing from childhood to adolescence, forget about childhood, reaching middle age, forget about youth. That's how they age before their time."

I haven't been to Baku for almost a year. The current government treats him with tension. He was already detained for warning at the border. However, he plans to return. Ibragimbekov does not give up yesterday's self. Maybe that's why the author of more than fifty scripts retained the respect of colleagues from different countries. He is still in good shape today. Eldar Shengelaya is filming the "Caucasian Trio" according to his script - an honest social movie. The heroes of the film, three friends, an Armenian, an Azerbaijani and a Georgian, risk their careers and lives, remaining true to their friendship. And that means to yourself.