Aleksei Balabanov


Aleksei Oktyabrinovich Balabanov was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and producer, who shot mostly arthouse pictures but gained mainstream popularity with the crime drama Brother and its more action-oriented sequel, Brother 2, both of which starred Sergei Bodrov, Jr. as Danila Bagrov. Brother was successful both at the box office and in video copies, achieving wide popularity in Russia. Later, however, Balabanov became better known for his films Cargo 200 and Morphine. A hugely controversial figure, Balabanov was often accused of both Russian nationalism ' and Russophobia ', as well as general misanthropy. Due to his personal and political controversy, grotesque style, dark humour, shocking naturalism, genre deconstruction, and balancing between art cinema and mainstream he was often compared to Lars von Trier, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Coen brothers, and Takeshi Kitano.

Life

Aleksei Oktyabrinovich Balabanov was born on 25 February 1959, in Sverdlovsk.
In 1981 Balabanov graduated from Translation Department of the. He then served in the Soviet Army as an officer-interpreter. After his discharge, from 1983 to 1987 he worked as an assistant film director at Sverdlovsk Film Studio. Balabanov shot his first film in 1987, in the Urals. The script of the film was written overnight. This low-budget work was filmed in a restaurant. Later Balabanov studied at the experimental workshop "Auteur Cinema" of the High Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors, graduating in 1990. In 1994 Balabanov together with Sergey Selyanov and Viktor Sergeyev founded the production company CTV.
Balabanov died on 18 May 2013 of a heart attack. Lying in repose at "Lenfilm" by the will of Balabanov was not carried out. The funeral took place at the Smolensky Cemetery."At his death, he was planning to make a film on Stalin, portraying him as a godfather of crime." He was married to costume designer Nadezhda Vasilyeva. He had two sons.

Literature

Balabanov directed several video clips:
Three clips for the group «Nautilus Pompilius» 1988 — «Vzglyad s ekrana», 1992 — «Pure demon» 1997 — «Vo vremya dozhdya»
1989: clip of the group «Nastya» — «Stratosfera»
2000: together with the director Valery Makushchenko, the clip of the group «Bi-2» — «Polkovniku nikto ne pishet»