Iraqi artist, director and theater researcher Mohsen al-Azzawi, who died Sunday morning after a battle with illness, died at the age of 84, leaving behind a great artistic legacy.

A number of Iraqi artists spoke who accompanied Al-Azzawi's artistic career and shared with him the works he presented to theater, television and cinema over 60 years as an actor and director since the late fifties of the last century.

The Iraqi Artists Syndicate said that the loss of creators is irreparable, and Al-Azzawi promised one of the statures and giants of authentic Iraqi art, and pointed out that his departure was a shock to the Iraqi and Arab artistic community.

The head of the Syndicate of Artists Jabbar Judy told Al Jazeera Net that "the late artist stature of theater, cinema and television in Iraq, presented works of great beauty and quality, and excelled in dozens of series."

Mohsen Ahmed al-Azzawi was born in April 1939 in Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq, where he grew up in a middle-income family, graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad in 1960, then graduated from the Academy of Dramatic and Musical Arts from the University of Prague (formerly Czechoslovakia) in 1966, then was appointed as a teacher at the Institute of Fine Arts, before being seconded to teach general culture in Saudi Arabia in 1968.

Al-Azzawi began his career as a director in 1958 with the play "Cell No. 16" written by the late Aziz Abdul Saheb, which was the starting point for a busy career during which he presented more than 60 theatrical works.

High craftsmanship

For her part, the artist Sanaa Abdel Rahman says that the late Mohsen Al-Azzawi is one of the pioneers, and he has his own imprint, and provided the artistic scene with distinguished works - director and actor - during which he embodied the roles assigned to him with high professionalism, and considered him the best who led the management of the National Acting Troupe, which witnessed his years of management the golden age of the troupe because of his wisdom, discipline and boldness in choosing texts, according to her estimation.

Sana Abdel Rahman – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – that she was among a number of graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts and the Institute of Arts who were attracted by the late artist, and contributed to their stardom in the theater, especially in the seventies and eighties of the last century.

The artist Mohammed Hussein Abdul Rahim describes the late Azzawi owner of a history full of giving, and said to Al Jazeera Net that "his work will remain immortal in the memory of Iraqis, although he left our world."

One of the late close friends journalist and writer Ali Hussein, who described Al-Azzawi as a human being and an artist who gave his audience beauty and the smell of people's concerns, Hussein said – for Al Jazeera Net – that the late artist remained over his artistic life seeking a different theater, with social goals and objectives, without turning into a propaganda platform so as not to lose his real job, because the theater for him is a cause for pain and joy, which was living through it a constant conflict with the world called by his imagination, he wants a theater that provides small details That gives us ideas just as much as it gives us pleasure.

Al-Azzawi published his book "Betting on Time" in 2017, which is an autobiography in which he dealt with his artistic life with chapters and scenes, as well as several critical books before him, including "The Problem of Scenography in Theater", "The Beginning and Prospects", "Theater and its Community Relations", and "The Role of Women in Iraqi Theater".

Creativity in directing and acting

For his part, film critic Mahdi Abbas – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – that the late artist excelled in directing and acting together, and presented successful works artistically and publicly, especially in the field of theater and drama, as well as in cinema, pointing out that Al-Azzawi Arab works, including his participation in the Saudi film "Morning of the Night" which was produced in 2008.

Al-Azzawi, a member of the Iraqi Artists Syndicate, held many positions, including director of the National Acting Troupe between 1975 and 1982, then became director of the National Troupe for Folk Arts between 1987-1991, director and artistic supervisor of the Babylon International Festival from 1987 for 10 consecutive sessions, after which he assumed the position of managing director of the Babylon Film and Television Production Company.

He also participated in many Arab and international festivals and conferences, most notably the Damascus Festival for Dramatic Arts, the Cairo International Festival, the Jordanian Theater Festival, the Saqr Al-Roshood Forum Festival in Kuwait, the fourteenth Cairo Experimental Festival, the Children's Theater Festival in Jordan, the Carthage Theater Festival, and the Children's Theater Festival in Libya.