Vadim Abdrashitov, one of Russian cinema's most independent directors
who was influenced by liberation of cultural life during the
Khrushchev's "Thaw", is now an internationally renown filmmaker with
awards from the Berlin and Venice Film Festivals.
He was born Vadim Yusupovich Abdrashitov on January 19, 1945, in
Kharkov, Ukraine, USSR (now Kharkov, Ukraine). His father, Yusup
Abdrashitov, an ethnic Tatar, was an officer in the Soviet Army and for
that reason his family was moving many times to places like
Vladivostok, Alma-Ata, Sakhalin, Kamchatka and Leningrad. Young
Abdrashitov was so impressed with the space flight of the first Russian
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, that he left his
parents in Kazakhstan, and moved to Moscow. There he studied nuclear
physics at the famous 'FisTech' where the Nobel Prize Laureats Landau,
Tamm, and Semyonov were among professors.
At that time Abdrashitov became involved in amateur film-making. Then
he transferred to the Mendeleev Institute of Technology, because it was
equipped with the film studio for students. His cultural and artistic
interests developed during the "Thaw", that was initiated by
Nikita Khrushchev. Abdrashitov was
influenced by the books of
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and
Vasiliy Aksyonov, and by the songs of
Vladimir Vysotskiy, Yuri
Vizbor, Bulat Okudzhava, and
Aleksandr Galich. After graduation as
an engineer, he worked as a manager at the Moscow Electric-Vacuum
Industry, which was making color TV tubes.
From 1970-1974 Abdrashitov studied film directing under
Mikhail Romm at the Moscow State Institute
of Cinematography (VGIK). After the death of Romm, he continued his
film studies under Lev Kulidzhanov and
graduated as a film director. His directorial debut was
Ostanovite Potapova! (1973),
a satirical comedy based on the screenplay by
Grigori Gorin. In 1975 Abdrashitov met
with the unknown writer
Aleksandr Mindadze. That was the
beginning of their fruitful collaboration in their next 12 films, which
they made together in 30 years. Their films were awarded at many
international film festivals as well as at the Soviet and Russian film
forums. Abdrashitov became Laureat of the Russian State Prize for his
film
Ostanovilsya poezd (1982).
In Parad planet (1984), an
existential film, starring
Oleg Borisov,
Sergey Shakurov, and
Sergey Nikonenko with others, seven men
are trying to find their way back home after a military training in
which they were "killed" by an enemy's missile, and seized to exist. In
search for their way home they go through mystical experiences in the
battlefield, then in a "city of women", in a retirement home, and
finally they witness a Parade of the Planets, a rare cosmic event that
happens once in a thousand years.
Abdrashitov and Mindadze has been enjoying continuous and fruitful
collaboration which had resulted in many critically acclaimed works.
Their
Plumbum oder gefährliches Spiel (1987)
was awarded the Gold Medal at the 44-th Venice International film
Festival. Abdrashitov was made Laureat of the USSR State Prize for his
film Der Diener (1989), which was also awarded
the Alfred Bower Prize from the Ecumenic Jury at the Berlin Film
Festival (1991). Their haunting film
Vremya tantsora (1998), with
remarkable acting by Sergey Garmash and
Chulpan Khamatova, received several
awards and nominations. Their latest
Magnitnye buri (2003) (aka..
Magnetic Storms) is an apocalyptic, anti-Utopian, almost "pavlovian"
analysis of provincial life in Russia, where people are programmed to
become zombies, trapped in a vicious cycle of work for survival and the
only events that bring variety to their monotonous life are occasional
sparks of bloody fist-fights - albeit powerless to change the general
doom.
Vadim Abdrashitov is a Member of the Russian Film Academy and a Member
of the Russian Union of Cinematographers. He received numerous awards
and nominations at Russian and International film festivals and was
designated People's Artist of Russia in 1992. Vadim Abdrashitov has
been enjoying a happy family life with his wife, Natella Toidze, and
their two children, son Oleg (born in 1973) and daughter Naina (born in
1980). Abdrashitov is currently residing and working in Moscow.
