OMM Newsroom
The documentary “Crude & Ink: Stories Written in Oil,” jointly produced by AnewZ and the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), brings human stories from Azerbaijan’s oil boom to the screen. The film looks at the period in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Baku became an industrial, commercial and cultural center, AnewZ said.
Vice President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva, officials and media representatives attended the film’s premiere in Baku. Based on 103 historical postcards and nine personal stories, the film explores everyday life during that period.
“Crude & Ink: Stories Written in Oil” draws on letters and postcards written by people who came to Baku from around the world during the oil boom. The correspondence reflects love, separation, family life and everyday concerns.
SOCAR Chief Communications Officer Aygun Huseynova described the film as the company’s latest corporate social responsibility project with AnewZ. She said the correspondence belonged to foreigners who came to Baku more than a century ago and wrote to their families about their lives.
“What amazes me is that these people could never have imagined that the simple letters they wrote home would one day become part of the greater history of Baku’s oil boom,” Huseynova said.
AnewZ Executive Director Rufat Hamzayev said SOCAR’s National Archive shared 103 postcards with the production team six months before the project began. He said the materials revealed the everyday concerns of people living in Baku at the time, as well as the lives of people from different countries, speaking different languages and belonging to different religions and ethnic groups.
The film combines archival documents, restored photographs and visual recreations. Director Elnur Mammadov said 20 people, from the driver to the screenwriter, took part in production and everyone contributed to the project. He described bringing the experiences of people from the past to modern audiences as one of the film’s most compelling aspects.
The introduction of a new system for leasing oil fields in 1872 marked a turning point for Baku’s oil industry, increasing competition and investment opportunities in the sector. Local entrepreneurs such as Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, Murtuza Mukhtarov and Shamsi Asadullayev also played an important role in the industry’s development.
Oil was an important resource in Azerbaijan even before industrial production began. As Baku became a major administrative and economic center of the Russian Empire, the expanding oil industry accelerated the city’s transformation.
The oil boom attracted workers, entrepreneurs and families to Baku from around the world. Communities with different languages, religions and traditions lived and worked alongside one another in the city. Traces of this diversity remain visible today in Baku’s architecture and cultural heritage.
The film focuses not only on industrial achievements and prominent figures but also on the experiences of ordinary people who witnessed the city’s transformation. The project involved research into archival documents, family histories and preserved sites connected to Azerbaijan’s oil industry.
The documentary also explores the longstanding relationship between Azerbaijan’s oil industry and its cinematic heritage. Some of the country’s first films, made in Baku in 1898, depicted scenes from the oil industry. The tradition continued with “In the Kingdom of Oil and Millions,” financed by Baku oil magnates in 1916 and considered Azerbaijan’s first feature-length film.
The joint project by AnewZ and SOCAR aims to preserve Azerbaijan’s energy heritage, pass historical memory on to future generations and introduce international audiences to Baku’s role in global industrial and economic development.
