Sabir Akbar oghlu Rizayev, a prominent film critic and theater critic, doctor of art studies, was born on April 17, 1924 in the city of Iravan in an intellectual family. He graduated from the seven-year school named after Pushkin in Iravan. At that time, his father Akbar Rizayev worked as the head of the Turkish literature department in the editorial office of the “Inostranaya literatura” magazine in Moscow. Sabir graduated from high school in Moscow and volunteered for the war in 1942. After the end of the Second World War, he returned to Iravan and worked in “Communist” newspaper. Since 1948, his critical articles about theater plays and films have been published in the press.

Sabir Rizayev graduated from the Theater Institute in Iravan in 1951. In 1954, after graduating from the post-graduate studies of the Theater, Music and Cinematography Institute in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) with honors, he headed the script department at the “Armenfilm” film studio and worked as the chief editor at the Armenian State Cinematography Committee. From 1965 until the end of his life, he worked as the deputy director of the Art Institute of the Armenian Academy of Sciences and the secretary of the board of directors of the Union of Cinematographers of Armenia. As a result of his efforts, the Department of Cinema was established at the Art Institute, and a number of monographs were written.

Sabir Rizayev, who knew the Armenian language perfectly, wrote his works in Russian.

Sabir Rizayev’s parents made an exceptional contribution in connecting his life to theater and art. His father, Akbar Rzayev, wrote a comedy called “Reluctant Marriage” when he was still studying in the Iravan gymnasium, and that work was staged by Iravan theater lovers. Later, when Akbar Rzayev worked in responsible positions in the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Armenia and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia, he played roles in plays to keep Iravan theater alive. His mother, Firangiz Rzayeva, was one of the first intelligent Azerbaijani women to appear on stage in Iravan.

In 1975, Sabir Akbar oghlu Rizayev was awarded the honorary title of “Honored Art Worker of the Armenian SSR”. Modern Armenian art critics call Sabir Rizayev the founder of Armenian film studies. He has been the scriptwriter of a number of films. Sabir Rizayev’s monographs “Armenian Artistic Cinematography” (1963), “Rachya Nersesyan” (1968), “Vardan Ajamyan” (1978) have become table books of art critics.

The first research work about the Iravan Azerbaijan State Drama Theater, authored by him, was published in 1963 in Baku under the title “Azerbaijani Theater in Armenia” in Russian. The 165-page illustrated book “Yunis Nuri” written by Sabir Rizayev and Akbar Iravani about Yunis Nuri, the founder of the Iravan theater, was published in Azerbaijani by the Armenian Theater Society in Iravan in 1982.

In general, 28 books authored and compiled by Sabir Rizayev were published. 14 of them were published in Russian, 13 were translated into Armenian, and one was printed in Azerbaijani.

The works written by Sabir Rizayev are still relevant today, as some of his articles written in Russian were collected and published in 2009 in Iravan under the name “Избранные работы: о театре и кино”.

Sabir Rizayev died at a time when his creativity was flourishing. On December 20, 1978, he had a heart attack while giving a speech at a conference held in Iravan and died without being able to finish his speech. Sabir Rizayev was buried in Iravan city cemetery with a large crowd.

Nazim Mustafa
Doctor of philosophy in history, recipient of the State Prize