The 40th Door

There is an Azerbaijani fairy tale about a princess who must be saved from a house with 40 doors. Of all those who seek entry, no one is ever able to open the 40th door, and so the house's secret remains hidden. Fourteen-year-old Rustam is a gentle boy who lives in a tiny place near the Azerbaijan capital of Baku called “40th Door.” His father has been murdered by the Russian mafia, and he is left to try to find work and to take care of his widowed mother. Desperately, he tries to avoid selling the one possession they have of value, his father's worn old carpet. Rustam goes into the city to seek his fortune, and while he's there discovers many things that are new, including gangs of street kids and an enterprising petty thief who befriends him. Most wonderful of all is a school of music that Rustam inadvertently stumbles into, filling him with a fervent wish to become a drummer. Told in an unassuming, cinéma-vérité style by veteran documentary filmmaker Elchin Musaoglu, THE 40TH DOOR opens a window onto the difficulties of growing up in Azerbaijan. (In Azeri with subtitles) – B.B.