New documentary maps cultural journey from Scandinavia to Azerbaijan

A new film by Swedish filmmaker Mikael Silkeberg traces a cultural journey from Scandinavia to Azerbaijan. The documentary ‘The Homeland in Memory’, available to watch now on AnewZ, looks at how cultural memory in Western Azerbaijan has resisted displacement through its preservation in tradition. 

Silkeberg begins his narrative in the Swedish city of Uppsala, where he examines a rare 17th-century manuscript, an early translation of the Gospels into Azerbaijani.

The 55-minute film then moves to Stockholm, where it explores the Nobel brothers' activities in Baku during the 19th century.

The Swedish Nobel siblings — Robert, Ludvig and Alfred — built an international oil empire in the Azerbaijani capital during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The documentary also briefly examines links between other 19th-century Scandinavian figures and the Caucasus before shifting eastwards to Western Azerbaijan.

There, Silkeberg explores how the region's cultural memory is sustained through traditions, including the art of Azerbaijani ashiqs.

This ancient syncretic folk art centres on a travelling minstrel who combines poetry, storytelling, theatre and dance.

The film also considers Azerbaijani carpets as historical archives, with their patterns, colours and compositions reflecting cultural beliefs and historical contexts.

Silkeberg previously told AnewZ’s Nadia Gyane that making the film helped him understand his own mixed Nordic identity, as a Swede who grew up in Denmark before the age of 11.

“For me, in a way, this movie was [a way] to discover my own culture and really understand what the different things mean,” he told AnewZ’s Daybreak show on Wednesday (17 June). 

Silkeberg added that tradition was a way of preserving culture when faced with challenges such as geographical displacement.

“I think it's important for young people to know about the ashiq culture and, to say, ‘this is where we're from.’ 

“Because people have been displaced, and now they understand how important it is to embrace their culture.”

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Created with the support of Azerbaijan's Embassy in Sweden, the documentary was first screened at Stockholm's Filmstaden Sergel cinema in May.

Zaur Ahmadov, Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Sweden, said the film explored "how memory preserves identity beyond geography".

"At its core, the film presents Western Azerbaijan as a cultural landscape sustained through memory, a world of places, traditions, and meanings carried across generations."

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