DUSHANBE -- Marat Orifov, a Tajik filmmaker and actor whose work won accolades in the Soviet era, has died in Dushanbe at the age of 83.
Orifov's daughter Marianna Orifova told RFE/RL that her father, whose last name is sometimes spelled Arifov, died late in the evening on October 29.
Orifov was born in Dushanbe in 1935 to the family of the prominent Tajik singer and actress Tuhfa Fozilova.
He gained prominence in the 1960s and 1970s, when he played major roles in films such as The Poet's Fate, Kaveh The Blacksmith, and The Siege.
Orifov was also known as a filmmaker who directed popular moves including Nisso, My Heart In The Highlands, and The Mystery Of Ancestors.
His last role in cinema was in the 2014 film The Teacher, for which he received an award at the 2015 Fajr International Cinema Festival in Tehran.
Orifov graduated from the Aleksandr Ostrovsky Institute of Theater Arts in Tashkent in 1960 and the Moscow Institute of Cinematography in 1965.
