Jafar Jabbarly

He was married to Sona Khanim.

Just as he reached the peak of his career, he suffered a heart failure and died on December 31, 1935, in Baku, Soviet Union, at a young age of 35, leaving the entire cinema world in shock. He was interred at the Alley of Honor.

A subway station, a street, and the national film studio, Azerbaijanfilm, are named after him.

Jafar Jabbarly was born as Jafar Gafar oglu Jabbarly on March 20, 1899, in Xizi, Russian Empire (present day Azerbaijan).

After his father’s sudden death in 1902, the family moved to Baku, where he and his three siblings were brought up by their mother.

He completed his schooling in 1915 and went to Baku Polytechnicum to pursue electromechanics.

In 1920, he enrolled in an applied medicine program at the Azerbaijan State University, but changed his course to Oriental studies since he didn’t find medicine interesting.

With a dream to make it big in dramatics, he went to a local theatre for drama lectures, in 1923.

Since he was inclined towards literature from the start, he began writing poetry as a teenager. His first volume of poems released in 1911 in Hagigat-i Afkar, an Azeri daily.

In 1920, he took up the job of a literary worker and translator in the newspaper ‘Kommunist’. Subsequently, he became the chief of literary section in the National Drama Theatre, in 1929.

He forayed into direction by filming his play ‘Sevil’ in 1929, which was released by the State Cinema of Azerbaijan. It was highly appreciated and well-received, especially by women.

In 1934, he wrote a screenplay for his play ‘Almas’ and began shooting in Dedegunesh village, in Shemakha district. The movie was completed by his friends and colleagues, after his untimely death, and released in 1936.

Apart from ‘Hamlet’, he also translated William Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, Alexander Afinogenov’s ‘Fear’, and Pierre Beaumarchais’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’.

He pioneered in bringing European dramas to the Azerbaijani stage with his translation of William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ into Azeri in 1925, followed by directing its stage play at the Azerbaijan Drama Theatre in 1926.

As the first screenwriter in Azerbaijan, he wrote the first script for the screen version of ‘Haji Gara’ titled as ‘Sona’, eventually ending up writing almost a new play.

‘Sevil’ and ‘Almaz’ are considered to be his best works, both of them focusing on the oppression and struggles of women to maintain pace with life and eventually fighting for justice and freedom.