"During the week long festival, the five theatres in the city that were presenting pieces produced and played by Iranian directors and actors were full, to the surprise of the organisers", one of the officials from the Festival told Iran Press Service.

Opening the Festival, Dr Michael Wesper, the Culture Minister of the Nord Rhine-Westphalia province, Germany’s most populous and richest of Landers had said the organisation of the event in Mulheim was a new manifestation of Iran-Germany rapprochement in all fields, including cultural, a domain Iran is very much familiar of.

Ahmad Azizi, the Iranian Ambassador in Germany said though political, diplomatic and economic relations are important between nations, "but what it lasts is culture and culture ties".

Organisers, both Germans and Iranians, expressed surprise at the welcome the population reserved to the event. "Despite the fact that the language of the pieces presented was Farsi, but all the theatres which had accepted to present one of the five pieces declared full every night.

The Festival of Iranian Theatre was part of a cultural exchange between Tehran and Berlin, with all aspects of German’s culture, literature, poetry, cinema, theatre, and philosophy etc. being presented in the Iranian southern city of Shiraz, the birthplace of great poets Sa’di and Hafez, this one being immortalised with the German public by Goethe, the great German poet.

All together, five shows, all Farsi spoken, were presented during the Festival, that organisers say due to its success, could well be taken to other German and European cities, including England, France and Italy, where Iran has a long history of cultural co-operation.

The pieces presented at Mulheim included "The Blacks"; "Maria Without Name"; the "Ali Akbar Ta’zieh", the only piece with religious coloration; "I and One Thousands You" and "The Dreaming Foul".

Mr. Majid Sharif Khoda’i, the Director of the Iranian Theatre Centre at the Ministry of Culture said Iranians and German companies were working preparing joint pieces to eb played in Iran and Germany.

He said Iranian cinema that has captured world admiration in the past decade, winning many international awards, had encouraged Iranian theatre to also reach the world stage, as, like the cinema, it has its own merits, high qualities and message.