TEHRAN – The Golden Lion International Theater Festival in Ukraine has honored the Iranian troupe Segane.

The troupe received two Golden Lions and certificates of the festival last week for their popular plays “Women’s Auschwitz” and “Holodomor”, which was staged under the title of “The Holocaust”, the group announced on Sunday.

The plays were performed on the closing day of the festival on October 8.

Seganeh earlier performed the plays at the Theatre On Pechersk in Kiev from October 4 to 6. The troupe plans to stage “Holodomor” during the Fajr International Theater Festival in Tehran in January 2022.

“Holodomor” and “Women’s Auschwitz” are parts of a trilogy written by Ali Safari about the three historical events that claimed millions of lives during the twentieth century.

The Holodomor is recognized as a genocide of the Ukrainian people carried out by the Soviet government. It was a famine planned by Joseph Stalin to eliminate a Ukrainian independence movement.

The word Holodomor literally translated from Ukrainian means “killing by starvation.” The term Holodomor emphasizes the famine’s man-made and intentional aspects such as rejection of outside aid, confiscation of all household foodstuffs and restriction of population movement. 

As part of the wider Soviet famine of 1932–33 that affected the major grain-producing areas of the country, millions of inhabitants of Ukraine, the majority of whom were ethnic Ukrainians, died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of Ukraine.

“Women’s Auschwitz” is about women in the Auschwitz concentration camp operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust.

Safari helmed the troupe in performing “Women’s Auschwitz” at the Golden Lion festival, while “Holodomor” was directed by Raha Hajizeinal, who staged the play at Tehran’s Neauphle-le-Chateau Theater earlier in February.

After Ukraine’s ambassador to Iran, Serhii Burdyliak, watched a performance of the play, Segane was invited to perform it at several Ukrainian festivals, including the Melpomene of Tavria International Theater Festival, which was held in Kherson from September 3 to 11.

Photo: This photo shows the Golden Lions and certificates awarded to Segane for the plays “Women’s Auschwitz” and “Holodomor” at the Golden Lion International Theater Festival in Ukraine.

MMS/YAW