Qadin.NET / Azerbaijan's first female film director

Azerbaijan's first female film director

The beginning of the twentieth century was a time when, despite a number of difficulties, women in Azerbaijan gradually began to play an active role in the cultural environment. At that time, one of our compatriots was entering the world of art, and her name would later become the first female director in our cultural history. This was Gamar Salamzadeh, the daughter of the famous Mollanasraddin poet, publicist Aligulu Gamkusar ...

Gamar Salamzadeh was born on May 5, 1908 in Nakhchivan. In 1912, his family moved to Tbilissi (Tbilisi). His father was killed by the Mensheviks here in 1919. Gamar remains under the care of his uncle Rzagulu Najafov.

After graduating from high school, he went to Moscow in 1929 and entered the State College of Cinematography, where he studied the secrets of cinema. He has an internship with the famous film director Alexander Dovzhenko.

After completing his education, G.Salamzadeh returned to Baku in 1931-32 and studied at the graduate school together with director Rza Tahmasib, artists Salam Salamzadeh and Rustam Mustafayev. During this period, he wrote the screenplays for the short films "Natavan" and "Nizami".

Aydin Kazimzadeh, a film critic and Honored Art Worker, writes in his research that every time he was assigned to direct a film, an Armenian or a Russian appeared and the work was taken from him. Nevertheless, he did not give up and continued his work successfully.

In 1935, he became the second director of the silent film "Dancing Turtles", based on the story of Abdullah Shaikh "Playing Turtle". Another film he co-directed with Alexander Popov was The Naughty Gang (1937). The film tells about the daily care of students of one of the international secondary schools in Baku.

It should be noted that the film "Naughty Gang" was taken to Moscow in the 1940s and given to the Russian State Film Fund. For many years, no sound was heard from this screenplay. It is revealed in the Russian State Film Fund after a hard search by the employees of the Azerbaijan State Film Fund. It was brought to our country in 2008 and presented to the audience. "Naughty Gang" is the second children's film in the history of cinema as a feature film.

In 1944, when the film studio was headed by writer Mehdi Hussein, Gamar Salamzadeh was finally given an independent job. He is the screenwriter and director of the documentary "Song of Healing" about doctor Husniyya Diyarova.

Only a few films were written as an independent director in the biography of G.Salamzadeh, who had the title of the first female director. After starting his career as a director, he was appointed assistant director of the film "Golden Shrub", which tells about the changes in socio-economic, political and cultural life. He became an assistant director of the film "Weak People" (1932), which tells about young people who began to live independently.

In the following years, G.Salamzadeh was an assistant director in the films "Sabuhi", "One Family". The well-known artist is also the author of the book "The world seen through a small window." Gamar Salamzadeh died in 1994 at the age of 86.


Savalan Farajov

Culture.- 2016.- May 27.- P. 15.

2 September 2020
GO BACK