Amazing Azerbaijan | |
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Directed by | Liz Mermin |
Produced by | Aisling Ahmed |
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Language | English |
Amazing Azerbaijan! is a 2013 British documentary film directed by Liz Mermin and produced by Aisling Ahmed. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Amazing Azerbaijan! pulls back the glittery facade that this oil-rich nation presented to the world when hosting Eurovision 2012, telling personal stories of human rights abuses to which Europe’s leaders have turned a blind eye. [1] The film looks at Azerbaijan in the run-up to the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Baku. It features interviews with Eurovision contestants and aspiring contestants, politicians, human rights activists, investigative journalists, and members of the public, and contrasts the image the government presents to the outside world with first-person accounts of torture, arrest, and abuse by the government.
The film is directed by Liz Mermin, produced by Aisling Ahmed, edited by Herbert Hunger, and features music by James Burrell. It was broadcast across Europe during the week of Eurovision 2012. It is distributed by DR Sales Denmark [6] The film received a Bertha (now Doc Society) outreach grant, [7] at which point it was lengthened to include an interview with the 2012 Eurovision song-contest winner Loreen. [2] [8]
The documentary has these songs/scores—
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Kirby Bryan Dick is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best known for directing documentary films. He received Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary Feature for directing Twist of Faith (2005) and The Invisible War (2012). He has also received numerous awards from film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Azerbaijan face legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in Azerbaijan since 1 September 2000. Nonetheless, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity are not banned in the country and same-sex marriage is not recognized.
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Azerbaijan participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Hour of the Wolf", written by Sandra Bjurman, Nicolas Rebscher, Nicklas Lif and Lina Hansson. The song was performed by Elnur Hüseynov, who was selected by Azeri broadcaster İctimai Television (İTV) in March 2015 to represent the nation at the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria. Hüseynov had previously represented Azerbaijan in its debut at the 2008 contest, where he performed the song "Day After Day" together with Samir Javadzadeh and placed eighth. In the second of the Eurovision semi-finals, "Hour of the Wolf" placed tenth out of the 17 participating countries, securing its place among the 27 other songs in the final. In Azerbaijan's eighth Eurovision appearance on 23 May, "Hour of the Wolf" finished in twelfth place, receiving 49 points.
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