Twenty years ago three new littoral states have appeared on a map of the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan have emerged from the wreckage of the Soviet Union with immense oil and gas reserves and the enormous challenge of defining themselves as independent nation-states.

The new countries became the objects on the battlefield of the superpowers and the renewed Big Game has brought a fresh glory to the region. Leaders pump billions of dollars into absurd projects to create the vision of a prosperous society, aiming to build new national pride in need to replace the lost Soviet one. History repeats itself, yet in a new garb: golden statues of the presidents replace the concrete statues of workers. 

The rapid oil-fuelled transformation of these societies and the newfound quest for national identity has left many isolated, unable to locate themselves in the midst of these changes. But the changes affect only the front side, like the Facade, thoroughly built along the central roads in Baku is fixed to old soviet blocks that are left in rotten condition. But those behind the facade are invisible, determined by the past, stuck in their ravaged environment

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