Zaur Gasimli ’s “ Taghiyev: Oil ” is the first film in a potential tetralogy, so it should come as no surprise that it plays like an extended first act. Azerbaijan’s 2026 Oscar entry, about philanthropist, oil magnate and “father of the nation” Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, is resplendent in its conception as a period biopic with the scale of mid-century Hollywood epic. However, its reverence for its subject overshadows most hints of human drama, yielding a work that skirts around critical examination and seldom manages to present Taghiyev with feet of clay.

The film is framed between two distinct moments of societal and economic transformation. It begins in 1922, after the formation of the USSR, and introduces Taghiyev (Qurban Ismayilov) as a “former millionaire” — and a forgotten recluse tur

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