TEHRAN – Iranian troupe Segane will perform their popular plays “Holodomor” and “Women’s Auschwitz” during the Golden Lion International Theatre Festival in Ukraine following their performances last week in a festival in the country.

The Golden Lion festival will take place in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv in October, and the plays will be staged on the closing day of the festival on October 8, the organizers have announced.

“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, which 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 will helm the troupe in performing “Women’s Auschwitz” at the Golden Lion festival, while “Holodomor” will be 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.

Amir Shams, Mehdi Abuhamzeh, Nazanin Mihan, Mohammad Pasandideh, Sarina Azad Milani and Hassan Mohammadian are among the main members of the cast.

Seganeh is also scheduled to perform the plays at the Theatre On Pechersk in Kiev from October 4 to 6. 

Photo: A poster for “Holodomor”.

MMS/YAW