Well-known Soviet and Tajik filmmaker and actor Marat Aripov died in Dushanbe yesterday, aged 84, after a long illness.

Marat Aripov was born in Stalinabad (Dushanbe) on July 27, 1935 in the family of the well-known Tajik singer and actress and singer of the Soviet era Tuhfa Fozilova (1917 – February 3, 1984).

Marat Aripov received his early education in Stalinabad before graduating from the Tashkent Theater and Art Institute in 1960.  In 1965, he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Cinematography (VGIK).

As actor, Marat Aripov became well-known across the former Soviet Union for his roles in Avicenna (1956), The Fate of Poet (1959), Kaveh the Blacksmith (1961), The Siege (1977), and others.  One of his last roles was the role of teacher in Muallim (The Teacher) (2014).  

As filmmaker, Marat Aripov became well-known for his movies Nisso (1965), My Heart in the Highlands (1968), The Mystery of Ancestors (1972), The Siege (1977), and others.