Biographies: Bassam Al Wardi - Director

Biographies

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An Iraqi film director, born in 1942 in Kadhimiya, Baghdad. He quit his biology studies at the University of Baghdad to join the Institute of Fine Arts, Cinema Department in 1961. He joined the National Acting Troupe in 1968, and among his most prominent theatrical works he directed for the troupe was the play The Cross. Then he worked in the seventies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and won many awards in the Gulf film and TV festivals. He made several documentaries about the lives of Iraqi artists, including the famous Iraqi sculptor Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, and the artist Khaled al-Rahal. Among his most important documentary films is A Story of Scope, about the biography of the Iraqi writer Yahya Jawad. He won many awards in film festivals and was considered one of the most important figures in the history of documentary cinema in Iraq. His film, On a Travel Night, sparked controversy when the cultural institution during the rule of the previous regime refused to show it because the Iraqi actress Ghazwh Elkhalidi played the lead role in it before joining the Iraqi opposition abroad in the early eighties. He passed away in 2007.

• 27 September 2021
• Dalia Saad