Chaplin's Worldwide Reach

Kambiz Derambakhsh in an undated photo TEHRAN -- Iranian cartoonist Kambiz Derambakhsh has said that he is “strongly influenced” by English comic actor and filmmaker Sir Charles Spencer “Charlie” Chaplin.   “He is my idol,” Derambakhsh admitted during a meeting at the City Book Institute in Tehran on Monday. The meeting was part of “The Artistic Dialogue”, a program organized by the institute every week.   “Chaplin’s works are simple, silent, emotional and meaningful. The works make people laugh and enjoy themselves, but they have not been produced just to make you laugh,” he stated.   Derambakhsh, who won the Grand Prize at the 33rd International Nasreddin Hodja Cartoon Contest in Istanbul, Turkey in mid-July, said that he would not like to draw cartoons about politicians and political issues.   “Politicians have become thick-skinned and cartoons do not affect them anymore,” he said.   “I would like my works to refresh the world and… to give people peace of mind,” he added.   The veteran cartoonist has participated in many international events in Canada, Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, Belgium and Brazil over the past four decades.   He won the grand prize at Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun competition in 1998, the grand prize of a contest in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1998, the bronze medal for third place of a South Korean contest in 1998, and the grand prize of a Polish anti-war caricature contest in 2002.