Tahmina (film)

Tahmina
Cover of the Video CD release
Directed by	Rasim Ojagov
Written by	Anar Rzayev
Based on	Beşmərtəbəli Evin Altıncı Mərtəbəsi by Anar Rzayev
Produced by	Rasul Guliyev
Starring	Fakhraddin Manafov Meral Konrat Hasanagha Turabov
Cinematography	Kenan Aziz
Edited by	Gulshan Salimova
Music by	Rafig Babayev
Production company	Tammetrajli Badii Film
Distributed by	Ojag Film Studio
Release date	1993 (1993)
Running time	106 minutes^[1]
Country	Azerbaijan
Languages	Azeri, Turkish, Russian

Tahmina (Azerbaijani: Təhminə) is a 1993 Azerbaijani romantic drama.^[2] The screenplay was written by Anar Rzayev based on his novel Beşmərtəbəli Evin Altıncı Mərtəbəsi ("The Sixth Floor of a Five-Storey Building", 1974–78). Directed by Rasim Ojagov, this film depicts the love affair between Zaur, a man from an affluent family, and Tahmina, a divorced woman doing her best to survive in a conservative society.^[3] The film is considered to be one of the best Azerbaijani movies produced in the 1990s. Funding for the film was provided by a Turkish businessman.^[4]

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Plot

The romantic relationship of the main characters Zaur and Tahmina starts off with a passionate affair and leads to many problems in a conservative society. Zaur (Fakhraddin Manafov), the 26-year-old son of a prominent and well-to-do professor (Hasan Mammadov), falls in love with Tahmina (Meral Konrat), a divorced TV anchor. Tahmina is admired by many of her colleagues and friends of Zaur's family. This attention to Tahmina from others causes Zaur to experience periodic jealousy.

In due time, Tahmina is sent to Moscow for a professional assignment. Zaur is so much in love with Tahmina that he follows her to Moscow.

Zaur's family condemns this romantic relationship and tries to divert Zaur into an arranged marriage with Firangiz (Laura Rzayeva), the 19-year-old daughter of a family friend. Social pressure and continuous calls from Zaur's mother (Zarnigar Aghakishiyeva) to Tahmina eventually cause problems in their relationship, leading them to break up.

Zaur, listening to his parents' advice, marries Firangiz. Tahmina, on the other hand, takes solitude in heavy drinking to ease her heart's pain. Due to this habit, Tahmina experiences problems with her liver and eventually dies of cirrhosis during Zaur and Firangiz's honeymoon in Istanbul.

When the couple returns from the honeymoon, Zaur's brother-in-law breaks the news to him. Although Zaur is devastated, the final scene of the movie shows him taking out his wife's grocery list and driving to the market, implying that life goes on.

Production

The movie was shot in Baku, Moscow and Istanbul in 1993.^{[citation needed]}

Cast

Fakhraddin Manafov - Zaur
Meral Konrat - Tahmina
Zarnigar Aghakishiyeva - Ziver (Zaur's mother)
Hasan Mammadov - Professor Zeynally (Zaur's father)
Larisa Khalafova - Madina
Hasanagha Turabov - Dadash
Tofig Mirzayev - Mukhtar
Laura Rzayeva - Firangiz
Elmira Shabanova - Aliya
Fizuli Huseynov - Spartak
Malik Dadashov - Murtuz
Dadash Kazimov - Mammadnasir
Eldaniz Rasulov - Aspirant
G. Shtil - Policeman
Mebud Maharramov - Zaur's colleague
Nuriyya Ahmadova - Sima
Mayak Karimov - Gurban
Talat Rahmanov - guest at a birthday party
Kanan Mammadov - guest at a birthday party
Tanila Ahmarova - guest at a birthday party
Elbrus Vahidov - guest at a birthday party^[5]

Awards

In 1993 the Baku 2nd Film Festival awarded Rasim Ojagov with Best Director award and Zarnigar Aghakishiyeva with Best Actress award.

Analysis

In Azeri Women in Transition: Women in Soviet and Post-Soviet Azerbaijan, the anthropologist Farideh Heyat discussed Tahmina, saying that "The story reflects many of the tensions and contradictions that faced the young in the professional middle-class society of Baku in the post-Soviet period," and noted how it portrayed the influence that mothers wielded over their adult children in Azeri society.^[6]