University of Tehran to host Hafez and Goethe

May 5, 2019

TEHRAN – Iranian filmmaker Farshad Fereshteh-Hekmat’s docufiction “Hafez and Goethe” will go on screen at the College of Fine Arts at University of Tehran on Tuesday, the Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) announced on Sunday.

Veteran stage and screen actor Nasser Aqai, who stars as Goethe in the film, and film expert Ahmad Alasti will attend a review session, which will be organized after the screening.

“Hafez and Goethe” tries to shed light on the great German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s inspiration from the Persian poet Hafez.

The film was shot on locations in Hafez’s hometown Shiraz, which also houses his tomb, and Tehran. Fereshteh-Hekmat and his crew also traveled to Frankfurt, where Goethe was born, and several other German cities such as Weimar, Berlin, Heidelberg and Leipzig to shoot scenes of the film.

Goethe wrote “West-East Divan”, which contains his poems, notes and essays, under the influence of Hafez’s poetry.

He was familiar with Hafez and his works through his friendship with Austrian Orientalist Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856) who provided the first ever complete translation of the Divan of Hafez into a Western language.

Photo: A poster for the docufiction “Hafez and Goethe” by Farshad Fereshteh-Hekmat. (DEFC)