Taghiyev: Oil
A film byZaur Gasimli
Scenes from Taghiyev: Oil
From Baku’s oilfields to intimate interiors and crowded public spaces, these images trace a world shaped by ambition, uncertainty and transformation.
Film stills © Vladimir Artemyev
About Taghiyev: Oil
Before the fortune came years of risk, labour and persistence.
In August 1922, American journalist Jerry Thompson arrives in Azerbaijan and meets an elderly Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev at a villa in Mardakan. Once one of the region’s great oil industrialists and philanthropists, Taghiyev begins to recount the extraordinary path that took him from humble beginnings to the centre of Baku’s oil boom.
His story returns to years of uncertainty on the Absheron Peninsula, where the search for oil tests his resolve before transforming the course of his life. The film follows not only the making of an industrialist, but the beginnings of a public legacy shaped by enterprise, philanthropy and a commitment to education.
Azerbaijani cinema on the big screen in Calgary.
Join us at the Calgary European Film Festival for a special screening of Taghiyev: Oil at La Cité des Rocheuses. The 104-minute feature begins at 6:00 PM and will be presented in Azerbaijani with English subtitles.
Saturday, November 7, 2026.
A full-length historical drama.
Presented in Azerbaijani with English subtitles.
Step inside the story.
Meet key characters from Taghiyev: Oil and discover the scale of the production behind its recreation of a defining period in Azerbaijan’s history.
Before the breakthrough came years of uncertainty.
Taghiyev’s search for oil becomes the turning point in a life that would reach far beyond industry, shaping philanthropy, education and public life in Baku.
