Tell us a bit about yourself - all the basics! Where you’re from, where you grew up, interests, hobbies, siblings, causes you’re passionate about, anything else that comes to mind…

I am from Azerbaijan. I spent my childhood years between Baku and Avey mountain in Gazakh. My mother teaches literature, my dad writes poems and plays music in saz which I think has influenced me as a child. During my school years, I would write stories and turn the stories we saw in literature classes into little theater plays. My love for telling stories started from those days.

How did you become interested in film?

Because of my love for literature and theater, I dreamed of becoming a screenwriter and I began studying Cinema. But the school I attended was more theoretical and little by little, that dream began to fade. For a time, I even started to study an engineering program for a while, trying to follow a more "practical" path. Then one day, by chance, I saw Benjamin Barrese’s The Disappearance of My Mother in a film festival which made me fall in love with Documentary film. At that moment, I knew that I had to make films. I left engineering behind and applied to the DocNomads Documentary Film Directing Master’s Program where I finally found the tool and the space to tell stories through film.

If you weren’t a filmmaker, what might you be? What did you want to do or be growing up?

I find the purpose of living in observing, examining, and questioning life, people and the world around me. Camera is a magical tool, it reveals layers of reality I could never catch with the naked eye. Behind the lens, I’ve found the purpose of my existence. If I were to live this life a hundred times over, I would choose to be a filmmaker each time.

Other than documentaries of course, what’s your favorite film genre and why?

Not only in film, but also in literature I love the magical realism genre. The beauty of it for me is its attempt to give form to the invisible. It's like the dreams in which we fly. We can feel them deeply, yet we can’t quite put them into words.

If you could have coffee with any filmmaker, living or dead, who would it be and why?

I wish I had the chance to meet Chantal Akerman while she was alive. Her films, her books, and her way of seeing the world have deeply influenced both my personal and professional life.