Ilgar Najaf

Ilgar Najaf (b. 1975, Armenia, USSR), and his family were expelled from Armenia after the ethnic conflict in 1988, and he became a refugee at the age of thirteen.

From 1993 to 1997 he studied film and TV direction at the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts. He began as a documentarist, turning out Shacks without Shades (Kölgəsiz komalar, 2000) and There Exists an Old Man (Bir qoca var..., 2002), and he also made shorts (Theatrical Life / Teatral həyat, 2009, Silver Remi from Houston's WorldFest). He established Buta Film in 2004.

His feature film debut Buta (2011), the tale of a seven-year-old boy living with his grandma in a mountain village, depicts traditional rural life unmarked by the frenzy of the modern age. The film won awards at several festivals, among them the Houston WorldFest and the Isfahan IFF, and it was also Azerbaijan's submission to the Academy Awards.

MFF Karlovy Vary