Vadim Abdrashitov

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 transfered 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-Vaccuum 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 The Train Has Stopped (1982). In Parade of the Planets (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, or Dangerous Game (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 Sluga (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 Magnetic Storms (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.