Vadim Yusupovich Abdrashitov is one of Russian cinema's most independent directors. He is internationally renowned, with awards from the Berlin and Venice Film Festivals. Abdrashitov was born in Ukraine in a Tatar family, and moved all over the Soviet Union with his father's military assignments. He was so impressed with the space flight of the first Russian cosmonaut that he left his parents and moved to Moscow to study nuclear physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Around that time, he developed an interest in amateur filmmaking, and he transferred to the Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology because it was equipped with a film studio for students. His cultural and artistic interests developed during the "Thaw," which was a time when repression and censorship were reversed in the Soviet Union. 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 at the Moscow State Institute of Cinematography. His directorial debut was Ostanovite Potapova!, 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 a collaboration that lasted for the 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. The films of Abdrashitov are often characterized by allowing viewers to see self-exploration occurring in the protagonists. This will lead them to challenge social norms and traditions. He delves into uncomfortable, challenging intellectual territory, but manages to avoid the depiction of graphic violence in all his films. Instead, misery is alluded to in more creative and at times surrealist ways. In 1987, he won the President of the Italian Senate's Gold Medal at the 44th edition of the Venice Film Festival for the film Plumbum, or The Dangerous Game. In 1989, he won the Alfred Bauer Prize at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival for the film The Servant. The following year he was a member of the jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival. At the 45th Berlin International Film Festival in 1995, his film A Play for a Passenger won the Silver Bear. Vadim Abdrashitov has been enjoying a happy family life with his wife, Natella Toidze, and their two children, son Oleg and daughter Naina. Abdrashitov is currently residing and working in Moscow.
