Make a wish and blow out the candles. What did you wish for?

Kamran Baxşızadə went to fight as a volunteer in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in the autumn of 2020. In a battle that coincided with his birthday, he lost his sight. The film begins where the war news ends: a young man returns home – to a world he can no longer see – and must learn everything anew, from the space around him to the question of what to do with his life now. The camera follows him through his everyday life, which is not heroic but tests his tenacity and endurance. The film observes how hope and stubbornness build a life where it seems impossible.

Murad Allahverdi is a young Azerbaijani documentary filmmaker, one of the most outstanding of his generation. This film contains no battle scenes, nor scenes of fleeing from bullets, but something far deeper – a human being in all his beauty and pain, yet also in hope and love. But will the life that once was ever return, even if you want it to so very much? The film's black-and-white imagery is particularly poignant.

Mikk Granström