‘Hafez and Goethe’ to go to Tehran University

Iranian documentary-fiction ‘Hafez and Goethe’ has been set to go on screen at the University of Tehran.

Made by Farshad Fereshteh-Hekmat, the documentary-fiction will be screened on Tuesday, Iran's Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) announced.

Veteran Iranian stage and screen actor Nasser Aqaee, who stars as Goethe in the film, and film expert Ahmad Alasti will attend a review session, which will be held after the screening.

The film is about the role of Hafez on inspirations of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

It has been shot on locations in Hafez’s hometown Shiraz, which also houses his tomb, as well as in Tehran.

Last spring, Fereshteh-Hekmat and his crew also traveled to Frankfurt, where Goethe was born, and several other German cities such as Weimar, Berlin, Heidelberg and Leipzig to shoot some scenes of the film.

‘Hafez and Goethe’ had its premiere in Tehran in December during the Cinema Verite, Iran’s major international documentary festival that the DEFC organizes every year in December.

Goethe wrote ‘West-East Divan’, which contains his poems, notes and essays, under the influence of Hafez’s poetry.

He was familiar with Hafez and his works through his friendship with Austrian Orientalist Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856) who provided the first ever complete translation of the Divan of Hafez into a Western language.

The star of the doc to be screened at the University of Tehran appeared in movies such as ‘The Last Picture’, ‘Like a Nightmare’, ‘Bear’ and ‘360 Degree’. He has acted in some series as well.

Aqaee has authored several books on cinema and scriptwriting in addition to teaching at university. He also tried his hand at writing, translation and radio shows.

MG/AG