
Agency	Peachline
Creative head	Roman Orkodashvili
Author of idea	Elruz Fatiyev
Product	Holding Image Promotion
Description	In December, 2012, a start was given to the long process of restoration and colourisation of «Arshin Mal Alan». Management of Heydar Aliyev Foundation and «AtaHolding» highly valued the potential and value of this project and gave their agreement for it to commence. Why «Arshin Mal Alan»? Firstly, the year 2013 - is a 100-year Jubilee for the most loved Operetta of Uzeyir Hajibeyli. And secondly, in 1945, only one piece of material was shot onto a colour film and that was The Victory Parade on the Red Square in Moscow. In those years colour film was very much in deficit as well as its cost was sky high, as was the black and white's cost. The Director, Rza Takhmasib could only wish to shoot the musical fairy tale in colour, as it should have been shown to the audience, but in post war country, it was impossible. Notwithstanding that, the film turned out to be more successful than planned. During the first 45 days of airing, this film was watched by over 16 million viewers (thereafter the counting was stopped). Only in internal airing, this film earned 1000 times more than the cost of shooting. After 20 years, a remake of «Arshin Mal Alan» was shot, but it was received by viewers with the similar rate of greateness of failure with comparison to success of the original film. «Arshin Mal Alan» of 1945, was made by a success a line of amazing actors headed by Rashid. In order persuade him to play in the movie, Tofik Kuliyev and Niyazi, created and artificial situation at Baku train station. The train, heading to Tbilisi, where Rashid was living at the time, left, whereas Rashid and Tofik and future maestro were sent to the police station for «investigation». This way the director of the movie, Rza Takhmasib got his chance to persuade Rashid to play the lead role in the movie. (Rashid's fate was predecided as the character of Asker the cloth peddler, was… Rashid Behbudov's father, Madjid-bey Beybutali, who was making extra money by helping his father to sell cloth, before he became a professional singer. This story left a real step on the young Uzeir's mind, that he decided to write an operetta based on it.) All of these names – is the culture of Azerbaijan, self made people who created a real epic. The epic, which Azerbaijan almost lost. In the beginning of 1990s, the film that was kept at Gosfilmofond, literally dissapeared somewhere between the Russian and Azerbaijani border. During those years, there were problems in both countries, so keeping cultural heritage was hardly a priority, that is why when one of the greatest films of Azerbaijan almost got lost, nobody really noticed anything. When we started looking for the film, which was more or less suitable for restoration, we found out that in a dusty archive someone saved one single copy piece of the film, that was played great many times at the republic's cinemas. Once the restoration masters saw the state that the film was in, they came to shock just foreseeing the amount of work that was before them. Thank God, these people were the greatest masters of their work – winners of «Oscar» award and other Hollywood residents. Our position matched the position that of AtaHolding: no compromise, only the top level. The number of people that worked over the restoration and colourisation of «Arshin Mal Alan» was greater than the number of people that worked when it was originally shot. The work was taking place in 4 countries of the world. We approached specialists literally for each and every scene of the movie, who did not leave the archives, tirelessly looking for the sources in order to keep the historical accuracy in every second of the movie. The work over the film, that was almost ruined in places, reminded us a surgical operation. The main condition was not to damage it. This is how «Arshin Mal Alan» was remastered and reborn. The original sound was also restored and remastered to the maximum possible level together with the magical voice of Rashid Behbudov and the music of Uzeyir Hajibeyli. We got it all back. In colour, how even the makers of the original movie in 1945, couldn't even dream of. Die Mobiles Show: Die Mobiles – the shadow theatre from Germany performed an original show dedicated to Baku during the event dedicated to the anniversary of AtaHolding and AtaBank. Earlier, a TV commercial was shot with their presence, which conceptually was based on the motto of the bank "One step ahead" also associated with the anniversary evening. Vimeo: vimeo.com/81097682 Dan Dunn’s Show: In the frame of the anniversary night, an American artist Dan Dunn drew a portrait of Rashid Behbudov who was a symbol of the restored and colourirised film "Arshin Mal Alan". The "Vokalise" of Sevda Alekperzade, consisted of the famous music pieced of the legendary operetta of Uzeyir Hajibeyli, Dan Dunn drew with bright colours on the black background. For the creation of the portrait he spent 7 minutes. Vimeo: vimeo.com/81100196 "Arshin Mal Alan", Sevda Alekperzade, Vokalise The idea began with a clip that we decided to create a new soundtrack to the arias of the operetta " Arshin mal alan". To participate in the project Honored Artist of Azerbaijan Sevda Alekperzade and Chamber Orchestra of Baku Music Academy named after Uzeyir Hajibeyli by People's Artist of Azerbaijan Yalcin Adigozalov were invited. Talented musician Givi Usenashvili acted as an arranger. Arrangement itself was performed in the synthesis of contemporary sound and original composition solution. The performance was performed with live instruments like acoustic strings, and modern electronic guitars. All arias from operettas were performed without words. The clip was filmed in a minimalist style, so as not to distract the audience from the new and refurbished colorized frames of a movie. The clip was filmed at the Azerbaijan Academic Drama Theatre. Vimeo: vimeo.com/80874897
Advertiser	AtaHolding
Team members	Creative Director: Roman Orkodashvili Art Director: Fuad Atakishiyev Art Director: Stas Tokarev Designer: Nika Ryabova Designer: Elman Jafarov Copywriter: Ayten Ismikhanova Production Manager: Samira Jafarova Account Director: Konul Seyidova Account Manager: Sabina Kim

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