Baku, Azerbaijan, May 20
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Martynas Starkus and Vytaras Radzevičius, Lithuania’s popular travel filmmakers, have recently visited Azerbaijan for their new project called “Uz Kaukazo”, which means “Behind Caucasus”.
“We started our journey on April 22. We traveled across Poland, Ukraine and then we came to Baku. Our project is called “Uz Kaukazo”, which means “Behind Caucasus”. We are trying to show how people live here behind Caucasus and Baku is our last destination. We have a lot of friends after these travels in every country. We still keep relations with them. The point is to show how we see the countries. We have some adventures. We are trying to do some crafts here. I think this program about Caucasus will be very rich,” Martynas Starkus told Trend.
This is a movie about travel, said Starkus, adding that they meet people, see how they live, try the national food and also try to learn about the national culture.
“First place was Shaki. Then we went to Gabala and Baku. As we drive, our first impression is that you have good roads. You have very good tea and very good food. The first dish we tried here in Azerbaijan was piti. We enjoyed it very much. We tried everything. We went to the Saribash village high on mountains, almost 2 kilometers above the sea level and we needed to cross the river. But it was raining and that was a fun. It was difficult and local people helped us. Your people are very friendly. When we crossed the river, we went to the village up to the hill and just went to drink tea. We made this difficult way just to drink tea. We had a very nice conversation and met nice people. We drank Azerbaijan tea with jam and it was very nice,” noted Vytaras Radzevičius.
Starkus noted that they have been traveling almost 14 years around the world.
“We’re making travel documentary program, which is the most popular in Lithuania. We started in 2006. The main goal was to go somewhere with our car. So in 2006 we took our old Mercedes and went to Africa, to Mali. It took about 30 days from Vilnius. We made a four-series documentary and showed in the national network. It became very popular. That’s how the story began. Since then, once in a year, for one month we leave home and go to somewhere. We do documentary and show on Lithuanian TV. We have a lot of followers and fans. We have a good life. We see a lot and we can show people a lot. Sometimes we feel tired, but when you come home, after a few week, you start dreaming about new travel,” he said.
Starkus said they do about five episodes every year.
“Every episode is about 45 minutes. Travel is long. We need to shoot a lot of materials. Of course, from the screen we may look travel funs. But it is not easy. We need to drive long distances. This year we drove almost 4,000 kilometers. Last year, when we traveled to Alaska and Canada, we drove 8,000 kilometers in one month. We are not trying to show architecture, cultural places. We are telling stories about travel. We are trying to show the routine, everyday life, because it is more interesting,” he added.
Radzevičius noted that he has very interesting hobby during travels.
“I collect recipes of different nations. And I try to make those dishes at home in Lithuania. I bought two books here in Baku about Azerbaijani cuisine,” he said.
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
