Azerbaijani actor of 'Interrupted Song' to leave for Europe after plastic surgery

An ethnic Azerbaijani actor residing in Russia has agreed to star in the Interrupted Song, a documentary telling about the centuries-long conflict between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis.

He has given his consent to act in the documentary on condition of getting a large amount of money to be able to undergo a plastic surgery and fly to Europe, the film's general producer Ashot Poghosyan told a news conference on Wednesday, adding that the film producers have agreed to meet the actor's request.

He further said the Armenian man will be played by a 28-year-old Armenian actor who formerly played in an Armenian theater in Moscow.

Speaking of the Azerbaijani authorities' hatred campaign and their recent pressures on their actors in Moscow, Poghosyan said they probably fear the international community's response.

"The Azerbaijanis fear that the film will receive a wide public response as the international community will get to know the real history of the conflict," he said.

The producer finds the film doesn't deserve such hostile attitude.

"Not realizing anything, they have launched a large-scale propaganda campaign against the film," he added.

Earlier, an Azeri actor residing in Moscow had refused to cooperate with the film-producing team after Ambassador Polad Bulbuloglu's threats to call to responsibility all Azerbaijani actors who would accept the proposal to play in the documentary.

The film which lasts 90 minutes features the story of two young people – an Armenian and an Azerbaijani - who find themselves in the same boat during the war in Karabakh. After falling into a big pit, the warriors start a debate over Karabakh. The Armenian claims the country should be independent as its people expressed their will be become self-determined. The Azeri fighter tries to persuade him that the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples lived peacefully on the same land.

The authors of the film do not support any of the two conflicting positions. Instead, they attempt to propose a mutually acceptable solution through the debate.

The film scenes featuring the incident in the pit will be shot in Moscow. The mass scenes will be shot in Nagorno Karabakh.

The shooting will start on February 7. The premier screening will take place in Moscow late in May. It is also planned to organize screenings in the United States, France, Georgia, Turkey, India, Middle East and some Balkans states. The Armenian audience will have a chance to watch the documentary in June. Large-scale work to screen the documentary in Azerbaijan is currently under way.

The expenses are covered by the creative group; however, an extra funding is needed for shooting the mass scenes and organizing screenings abroad. The estimated costs will total $1 million.

The film's official website, available at www.prervannaya-pesnya.ru. was visited over 200,000 times within a fortnight. It's noteworthy that 29,890 visitors accessed the URL from Azerbaijani IPs.

A day after its launch the site was attacked by several Azerbaijani hackers, but only one of them managed to break the site content.

The authors refrained from commenting upon the film title for the time being.

The film slogan is "Any war is aimed at achieving peace".