Azerbaijan is preparing to shoot a drama about police officers.
This was provided for back in 2016 when the president signed a decree specifically to this end. It was included in a bill titled, “Additional measures to improve the business climate in the Republic of Azerbaijan to further improve the country’s position in international ratings”.
According to the decree, the implementation of the project will be realized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Television and Radio Council, and Television and Radio of Azerbaijan Ltd.
Will this decision help create a positive image of the employees of the law enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan? Will they be remodeled from their current image of extorters to rescuers and professionals in the public consciousness?
Meydan TV spoke to film critic Aygun Aslanova, who is doubtful that this film will be very successful in its aims. Similar measures have been taken in other countries, she says, and have ended with different results.
“There are many films and TV series that were shot about heroic policemen in Russia in the beginning of this century. The trend really took off after the popular TV series “The Brigade” came out, which was about a criminal gang.”
Georgia, she says, was very successful in reinventing the image of its police force.
“Georgia shot social media videos about their ‘new police force’ which immediately went viral”, she says.
“However, whether this method will work in Azerbaijan – where we are used to hearing every single day about torture, corruption and lawlessness in our own law enforcement agencies – is questionable. Surely, we cannot say anything concrete, we can only suppose”, says the film critic. “But I don’t think there will be any positive results.”