Thomas Goltz: An Oil Odyssey

Seymour Tahirbekov is an international chess grandmaster from Azerbaijan. Having won the Candidates Tournament, Seymour earns the right to challenge the defending world champion Skroten Gudmonson in the World Chess Championship match. With a few weeks left before the championship match, Seymour’s psychological and emotional state deteriorates under escalating abuse and pressure to succeed by any means.

Six various novels united in a one movie.

The last twelve months in the life of Dejan Stanić, a former general in the Balkan war. For ten years, he was forced to hide from justice, especially the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, on various undisclosed military bases. He finally found refuge with Slavko, an old man living in a small village in the mountains. Suffering from extreme isolation, Dejan will not only have to face a new environment and a new reality but won’t be able to escape his past.

A former research assistant Pasha is trying to invent defocusin at home. The substance that will render public persons' image to be out of focus in unwanted pictures. For about half a year Pasha has been testing the substance prototypes on his wife...

A portrait of a giant garage complex, located in the largest blockhouse area of Tallinn. Here 700 garage box owners form an extraordinary men's club, and vary from those who just keep their cars and those who adapt their boxes for living. The complex becomes even more unique with the existence of private saunas, a restaurant, an animal clinic and other artifacts of life stuck in time 20 years back.

Nijat, an emotionally empty young man, visits his childhood town of Goychay after years of living abroad. Enigmatic about his occupation but clear about his financial distress, he seeks an old family friend's help to sell his deceased father's house.

“Urban Motives 4.1” is an anthology film consists of 5 short movies by 5 Azerbaijani directors. The first, by Anar Abbasov, is about a relationship between a man and women who live next door; second, by Ru Hasanov, is about a life of a musician who is different from others with his mentality; third, by Teymur Ismayilov, tells a story of a young worker who has his own dreams; fourth, by Jafar Akhundzade, is about traumas caused by war; and the last one, by Vugar Islamzadeh, is a story about a criminal group and an officer who wants to take revenge.

Residents of a big city, each of whom has their own sexual problems and desires, secret and, most often, shameful from the point of view of society, need to solve them. Each of the characters tries to solve their problems in their own way: someone sublimates them, someone turns to a psychotherapist for help, someone rushes into experiments... but sooner or later they all return to where they started, and they have to overcome themselves again and again to get at least a little, even a millimeter closer to their happiness.

Yana Titova is a very successful businesswoman, editor-in-chief of a fashion glossy magazine. She considers herself a self-sufficient, accomplished woman and supports "child-free". It doesn't bother Yana at all that at thirty-eight she doesn't have a husband or children. Having achieved popularity, Yana confidently goes forward, not wanting to compromise her own principles. But suddenly, clouds are gathering over Yana's well-being, and in order to strengthen her almost lost position, she agrees to an unthinkable step, deciding to adopt a child. Yana takes her from the orphanage a little gypsy by the name of Yanko. That's just Yana does not even suspect what will turn out for her such a PR move.

A day in the life of a lonely Lezgi boy in a remote village in the mountains of northern Azerbaijan. All he has is his only friend and a football to keep him going in a village that has no future to offer him. The film is made in Lezgi language with some bits in Azeri.

A class leader interested in Japanese art had to change absences on the attendance book for helping her rebellious classmate graduate.

Stigmata is a raw and unsettling portrayal of early marriage and the way traditional Azerbaijani wedding customs strip women of their dignity. The film uses stark, disturbing imagery to reveal how these rituals inflict wounds that are more than symbolic, they are lifelong scars, carved into the body and soul. The crucified child bride becomes the ultimate manifestation of this suffering: a living sacrifice to tradition, marked forever.

Two heroines: Lyuba (Love) and Vera (Faith); one is 26, the other 40 years old. They met at drawing classes. For Vera the meeting is accidental, for Lyuba it is necessary. The love for the same man begins their short friendship.

Samir is an amateur filmmaker. Along with his despotic father and older sister Roza he resides in “Shanghai”, a slum located in close proximity to downtown Baku, the capital of the oil rich Republic of Azerbaijan. By sheer accident, Samir captures a video of Roza getting intimate with her boyfriend.

The film tells the story of two amateur musicians, Kamran and Majnun, whose roads cross with Tamilla and Sara, a grandmother and her granddaughter and the events following this acquaintance. As a result of an unexpected event, a well-known sports commentator is forced to spend New Year's Eve with a rock musician who has not found himself, and a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's disease with a graffiti lover.

One of the main characters, a professional fraudster, Nasrulla Sheykhov cannot be satisfied with the petty frauds he commits in the city. Greed for money makes him do even worse things. Going to a village, he promises to solve the social problems of the people there, so that later he can implement his cunning idea. After seeing the improvement in the village, all of Nasrullah's plans are in vain. Despite this, the fraudster does not stand still and resorts to an even more disgusting trick. That's where the real adventure begins...