Behind the Scenes

When I started writing the film “Maybe...” (its original title was “Heyif”), I had never acted in a film, shot anything, or written anything before. At that time, I was making a little money with my friends Rustam and Ibrahim by shooting love stories for weddings. But I didn’t really enjoy making love stories because when you watch the video, you already know that the couple will end up together. There is no drama, no conflict. “Maybe...” started with a simple idea. What would happen if ghosts came to the house of a man who had built a time machine?! What would fantasy and mysticism look like in the same film? But overall, the screenplay was about regret. From time to time, I would return to the screenplay, work on different parts of it, and then put it aside again. During that time, I lost my father. I didn’t know back then that death could be so unexpected. I started experiencing such deep regret over the time I hadn’t spent with my father and the conversations we never had that I became as regretful as the ghosts in the screenplay. The main character suddenly had a reason to go back to the past — to return and spend time with his father! While working on the screenplay from time to time, I shot short videos, acted in films, wrote other screenplays, and made another film. One day, I returned to “Maybe...” again and read it, and I thought its time had finally come. I called producer Nicat Khalilov, and he immediately said, “Let’s make it.” I was surprised! He had rejected the film several years earlier. But that same day, he had been talking to someone about a time machine. That person said that if he had a time machine, he would go back and get the Austrian painter admitted to university. That exact sentence was also in my screenplay, so it reminded Nicat of “Maybe...”. Ten minutes later, I called him and asked, “Maybe we should make ‘Maybe...’?” He took the coincidence as a sign and agreed. And so the process began. The actors were gathered, sponsors were searched for, locations were chosen, and we prepared for filming. During this time, my mother also left us and became part of the screenplay... It was a very difficult and complicated filming process. We filmed in Gobustan on one of the windiest days in Azerbaijan. We spent days and nights editing so that the film could reach cinemas on time. We released it in cinemas, received an award for the screenplay, and somehow managed to bring the film to life. I think an author shouldn’t talk about their own film. I don’t want to say anything about the film itself either. That should be said by the audience. No matter how personal and precious this film is to me, in the end, it is for the audience. I’ll put the link in the comments, and you can watch it there. I need some time before I can judge my own film. Maybe years from now I’ll say, “I wish I had never made this film,” or I’ll be happy and say, “I’m glad I made it.” I don’t know! What I do know is that there will always be a reason for us to say, “Maybe...”