Ibrus

The film takes place in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku at the end of the 1980s. At this time, the Soviet Union was starting to fall apart, and with this came the start of a number of ethnic conflicts. Fariz and his family move into a Baku apartment block from war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh. Fariz's relations with his new neighbors are strained by his accusations that it was people like them who failed to support the Azeris in their conflict with ethnic Armenians. The only one who stands up to him is Alik, who acts as peacemaker between him and the older inhabitants of the building. Alik has no reservations about brandishing his gun in order to keep the peace. One day, the apartment managers want to evict a number of musicians who have been squatting in the basement. Alik gets involved, but soon discovers the situation is more complicated that he first believed.

This story of two temperamentally different brothers takes place in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku during the 1970s. The elder brother Jalil is a married postal worker who keeps bees as a hobby. Younger brother Simurg is more adventurous by nature and capable of going after his goals, not just dreaming about them. Jalil has a recurring memory: once, when he was still a kid, his mother, pregnant with Simurg, took him to a women’s sauna. When both brothers fall in love for the same beautiful girl, their differences become apparent once again.

The boy caught a goldfish and without begging for anything, lets go. In gratitude, the goldfish decided to give the boy a new imported bicycle, which the boy had long dreamed of. And so the boy comes home with a new bike. Parents are surprised, questioned and, of course, do not believe their son. Can a goldfish give bicycles? They suspect the son of theft and deception. But finally, the boy manages to convince his parents and justify his honest name. But this fact immediately becomes the property of a small provincial town. Requests and orders rained down on the boy with immediate fulfillment of desires.

The plot of film is constructed on the basis of memoirs of the son and mother. They were divided with border between northern and southern Azerbaijan.

January 1990, Baku. The Soviet Union hasn't collapsed yet. Around 300 thousand Azeri have been forsed out from their homes in Armenia and Daghlig Garabagh. Rallies of protest, political meetings spring up in Baku. The old patriarch, Ismail gathers under his roof distant relatives, people of different nationalities, beliefs, and ideas. The old man is tortured by everything happening around him: unrest in the city as well as discord and discarder in his own overpopulated apartment. All his efforts to preserve the family are in vain. People want to live separately. Former friends become bitter enemies because of the senseless aggression.

The plot of the film is based on three love stories. The events take place in Moscow, Baku and Africa, but most of them are related to the Azerbaijani capital. The film, shot in the comedy genre, takes place during the Great Patriotic War, when the Germans left the occupied territories.