Sabir Rizayev
Sabir Rizayev (April 17, 1924 – December 20, 1978) was a respected Armenian film critic, screenwriter, writer, and art scholar. He was born in Yerevan and volunteered to serve in World War II in 1942. After the war, he returned to Yerevan and began publishing critical articles about theater and film in 1948.
Rizayev studied at the Yerevan State Institute of Theatrical Arts, graduating in 1951, and then completed postgraduate work at the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music, and Cinema in 1954. He led the script department at Armenfilm and served as the chief editor of the Armenian State Cinematography Committee. From 1965 until his death, he was the deputy director of the Art Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR and the secretary of the board of the Union of Cinematographers of Armenia. He helped establish the Cinema Department at the Art Institute and wrote several monographs. Modern Armenian art critics regard him as the founder of Armenian film studies. He wrote mostly in Russian.
His notable works include the first study on the Yerevan Azerbaijan Drama Theater, published in 1963 in Russian as “Azerbaijani theater in Armenia.” He co-authored Yunis Nuri, about the founder of the Azerbaijani theater in Yerevan, which appeared in Azerbaijani in 1980 and in Russian in 1982 by the Theater Society of Armenia.
Sabir Rizayev died of a heart attack on December 20, 1978, in Yerevan while speaking at a conference. He is buried in Yerevan.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 20:37 (CET).