Synopsis

Azerbaijan, around 1900. A successful young man (played by the legendary tenor Rashid Behbudov) wants nothing to do with the strict traditions of his home. Certainly not when it comes to choosing his future wife. He wants to actually meet her himself and preferably before the wedding. Therefore, with the help of a friend he disguises himself as a cloth merchant in order to inspect prospective brides. He soon falls in love with the daughter of a sultan, and complications are not long in coming. This well-known film classic, based on the 1913 comic opera of the same name by Üzeyir Hacıbəyov, contains many symbiotic moments where quotes from Western literature intertwine with Azerbaijani songs and dances. And of course there is no shortage of humour. Hacıbəyov was in actual fact the composer of the first opera of the Islamic world, and his original version of The Cloth Peddler was hugely popular in all of the Soviet Union, as well as across the Turkish-speaking world. The tale of a young couple fighting for their love of one another against all odds is timeless, and so it is no surprise that the film adaptation, shot in the Soviet Union during the Second World War, has since been shown in 140 countries.