In the name of God (film)
"In the name of God" or "Bismillah" () is the first film by the Azerbaijani director Abbas-Mirza Sharifzade, filmed in 1925 on an anti-religious theme. The movie was shot at a time when there was a fight against the Islamic religion in the country. The film "In the Name of God" was considered a significant success of Azerbaijan's cinematography. Film’s history. On 22 April 1925, the newspaper "Bakinsky Rabochiy" wrote that the shooting of the film "Bismillah" according to the script of Pavel Blyakhin was entrusted to Sharifzade. The newspaper "Kommunist  on 27 April, wrote that it “was filmed with the participation of the Turkic (meaning Azerbaijani) actors”. On 1 June of the same year, a film studio was opened at the State Film Factory, the director's part of which was headed by Abbas Mirza Sharifzade. Ajdar Nejad, on 31 May 1925 in the newspaper Kommunist", wrote that the movie "In the Name of God", which stopped a year before for some reason, had been filming for a month already under the administration of Sharifzade, and that it would be presented no later than 25 July in the honour of  Muharram. On 13 July, the film "Bismillah" was shown to students, artists and invited spectators. On 24 July, the Berlin cinematographers returning from Iran, being in the photo-cinematography department of Azerbaijan, wished to send the film "Bismillah" and a number of other films to Berlin. "Sovkino" ordered 12 copies of the film. In October, the film was shown in Moscow too. In Kharkov, 4 copies of this movie were also ordered for Ukraine. Asad Tahir wrote that such Western films as “Muslim Woman”, “Istanbul Beggar”, “The Thief of Bagdad” cannot compete with the film “Bismillah” in terms of  the oriental themes presentation, since this movie itself “was filmed in the East, by an oriental production, with eastern actors. Aziz Sharif wrote that by shooting the film “Bismillah”, Abbas-Mirza Sharifzade proved that he is a gifted director. The Soviet government actively used this film in the anti-Islamic propaganda. After Sharifzade was repressed, his name was cut from the credits of all the films he shot.