(MENAFN- AzerNews) By Laman Ismayilova
Jafar Jabbarli is a great Azerbaijani playwright and one of the
founders of the national film dramaturgy. He occupied a prominent
place in the development of Azerbaijani art and literature as a
playwright, poet, theater director, translator, and
screenwriter.
He was a prominent representative of progressive romanticism,
whose oeuvresreflected sharp contradictions of Azerbaijani
society.
Jabbarli started writing at an early age. His first poem was
published in 1911, in the local newspaper Hagigat-i Afkar. In the
following years, he penned over 20 plays, as well as stories,
poems, essays, and articles.
He also translated European classics, such as Shakespeare's
Othello and Hamlet, Pierre Beaumarchais's The Marriage of Figaro,
etc.
The writer's focus was on the theater where he achieved huge
success. His plays Baku War, Devoted Sariyya or Laughter Through
Tears, Shah Nasraddin, Bride of Fire, Sevil, and Almaz gained
widespread popularity.
In his plays, Jabbarli was keen on women's freedom, the
elimination of gender inequality, and the solution to problems
pertaining to mass ignorance among women.
Two of his plays, Sevil and Almaz, both written in 1928, focused
on women's role and their struggle against patriarchy.
In 1929, Sevil film was shot based on the play of the same name.
It was the first domestic film against gender inequality.
In this play, Jabbarli describes two women, Sevil, a beautiful
woman, who obeyed her husband unquestioningly, and Dilbar, Balash's
mistress, and a man named Balash, who disliked his past, repudiated
traditions and customs and turned away from his own father.
Sevil is the image of a woman, who abandoned all her fears and
doubts. The play shows the young woman's transformation into an
active fighter for a new life. With great difficulty, Jabbrali
managed to find an Azerbaijani woman, who agreed to star in the
film. Izzat Orujova, the nation's first cinema actress starred in
the national cinema without a veil, which was a very bold step for
those times.
Inspired by the success of the play Sevil, Jafar Jabbarli
started to work on a screenplay for Almaz film. Unfortunately, he
could not finish it amid health issues. His friends and colleagues
continued his cinematographic activities and completed the shooting
of the film that was released after Jabbarli's death. The film
tells about Almaz, who was not scared to come across a 'kulak' - a
wealthy peasant, called Haji Ahmad. She fought against kulaks,
sparked a revolution in the village, led her struggle, and won.
After so many years, Jabbarli's legacy still continues to
inspire people. The museum named after him was established in 1934.
Over 137,000 exhibits are stored at the Jafar Jabbarli Theater
Museum.
The museum collection includes valuable exhibits related to the
theater's history, such as manuscripts, role-writing books, photos
and negatives of different theatre performances, sound recordings,
dress and decoration sketches for stage plays, and much more. All
materials are collected chronologically. Here is a complete picture
of the development of the Azerbaijani professional theater.
The Jafar Jabbarli State Theater Museum systematically holds
events dedicated to prominent theatrical figures, lectures, and
exhibitions. In 2004, the Union of Theater Workers awarded the
museum the Golden Dervish Award for the acquisition and storage of
materials on the history of the theater.
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