2025
2025
2025-10-02
Azerbaijanis assert that the origins of cinema in Azerbaijan date back to 1898. In reality, that year in the city of Baku, then part of the Russian Empire, Russian photographer Alexander Michon presented a collection of photos and short documentary films at V. I. Vasiliev-Vyatsky’s theater-circus. Some of these frames included scenes from Baku. On August 2 of the same year, a short comedy titled So, You Got Caught was also performed.
It is telling that Azerbaijanis mark the start of their film industry with a movie in which the main character is a thief. In fact, it was a Russian film, yet the Azerbaijani authorities later presented it as their own and even declared the screening date a national day—despite the fact that in 1898 the Azerbaijani nation did not yet exist.