Sermon to the Void
DUTCH PREMIERE
As the world comes to an end, Shah Ismail embarks on a quest for the Water of Life.
At the end of the world, Shah Ismail crosses an endless desert in search of the mythical Water of Life. Around him, unnamed figures emerge from the landscape only to disappear again, their identities and purpose remaining elusive. The final chapter of Hilal Baydarov’s Sermon trilogy turns this elemental journey into an apocalyptic fable about faith, salvation and the search for meaning at the edge of oblivion.
SCREENINGS
Thursday 5 November 18:30
Saturday 7 November 21:00
Programme section(s): Cinema Current
Original title: Boşluğa Xütbə | Year: 2025 | Runtime: 112′
Country: Azerbaijan, Mexico, Turkey | Language: Azerbaijani | Subtitles: English
Cast: Huseyn Nasirov, Maryam Naghiyeva, Rana Asgarova, Elshan Abbasov, Orkhan Iskandarli
Director: Hilal Baydarov | Production: Hilal Baydarov – Ucqar Film, Carlos Reygadas – Splendor Omnia Studios, Burak Çevik – Fol Films | Screenplay: Hilal Baydarov | Cinematography: Hilal Baydarov | Editing: Hilal Baydarov
FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION)
Venice International Film Festival, 2025 – World Premiere | MIRAGE Film Festival, 2025 | São Paulo International Film Festival, 2025 | Tokyo International Film Festival, 2025 – Asian Premiere | Cairo International Film Festival, 2025 – MENA Premiere | Istanbul Film Festival, 2026
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Hilal Baydarov is a writer and director from Baku, Azerbaijan. In high school, he won the Azerbaijani National Mathematics Championship twice and, in 2011, led the country’s team at the International Olympiad in Informatics. After earning a master’s degree in computer science, he studied at the Sarajevo Film Academy under acclaimed Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr. Since then, he has completed an award-winning documentary trilogy set in Katekh, Azerbaijan: When the Persimmons Grew (2019), Mother and Son (2019), and Nails in My Brain (2020). His films have screened at major international festivals including Visions du Réel, IDFA, Sarajevo, and Cinéma du Réel. Sermon to the Void (2025) is his latest feature and the concluding chapter of his Sermon trilogy, following Sermon to the Fish (2022) and Sermon to the Birds (2023).
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
My understanding of cinema is not built on knowing, but on not knowing. While making this film, which took eleven months, it wasn’t until the fifth or sixth month that I found the name of the central character. The others remained unnamed. And to this day, I still don’t know who these characters are. I don’t know why they enter the film or why they leave. I can’t find their reflection in real life either. They simply dwell in the vastness of the desert. They are not the kind of figures one would encounter on a journey with any intention of return. After all, isn’t the true self we seek hidden in a place entirely without colour, without taste, without story – in the endlessness of the desert? And when a soul has once tasted the force of pure witnessing, isn’t embracing the curse of the desert as one’s homeland the truest Sermon to the Void?
