Veteran theater director Ali Rafiee honored at Fadjr festival

Veteran Iranian director Ali Rafiee has been honored at the Fadjr International Theater Film Festival in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Veteran theater and movie director Ali Rafiee, 78, has been honored for a lifetime of achievement in the performing arts, during the conclusion of the 35th edition of the Fadjr International Theater Film Festival on Tuesday.

Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Reza Salehi Amiri, his deputy, Ali Moradkhani, festival secretary, Saeed Asadi, and a number of Iranian and foreign artists were present during the closing ceremony at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall.

“The main task of theater and the main mission of a director are to convey the joys of acting to the actors and delight to the spectators watching; otherwise theater is worth nothing,” Rafiee said during a speech.

He also highlighted the importance of quality theater halls and job security as well as respect for professional theater artists.

“Promote theater, and respect theater artists. Theater reflects the aspirations and dreams of the people in the community. Theater is a medium to voice criticism on the (social and economic) shortcomings, to the government,” he noted.

Three veteran artists - cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari, t heater director Hussein Pakdel, and famous actor Reza Kianian - spoke about Rafiee’s unique sense of aesthetics in theater and cinema.

Rafiee has a PhD in theater from Sorbonne University in France, and staged over 10 plays including ‘Antigone’ written by the ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles, ‘Crime and Punishment’ by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky, ‘Blood Wedding’ by Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.

AI/AI