Aleksandr Yakovlevich Askoldov (; 17 June 1932 – 21 May 2018Richard Sandomir:

', The New York Times, June 6, 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-09.) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

actor and film director.

Life and career

Upon graduation from Moscow Lomonosov University in 1955 and the Gorky Institute of World Literature in 1958, Askoldov worked as an administrator for the USSR Ministry of Culture and for Goskino’s Main Department of Feature Film Production, where he was the supervisor for the Gorky Studio for Children’s and Youth Films. Askoldov then studied film direction with

Leonid Trauberg Leonid Zakharovich Trauberg (, 17 January 1902 – 14 November 1990) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter. He directed 17 films between 1924 and 1961 and was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1941. Trauberg was Jewish, and was fiercely attack ...

at the Supreme Courses for Screenwriters and Directors (VKSR), graduating in 1966. He directed his first film, ''

Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means ' commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and ...

'' (1967). The film was banned for more than 20 years. Its banning, caused by dissatisfaction by the authorities with his "party" direction, and his refusal to change certain aspects pertaining to characterisation in the film (which they requested), put an end to his career as a director in the USSR.

Commissar

The montage of ''Komissar'' coincided with the end of the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

, and since Askoldov refused to change the ethnic origin of the Jewish family, he condemned himself to official ostracism. After making the movie, Askoldov lost his job, was expelled from the Communist Party, charged with social parasitism, exiled from

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and banned from working on

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

s for life. He was told that the single copy of the film had been destroyed. Mordyukova and Bykov, major Soviet movie stars, had to plead with the authorities to spare him of even bigger charges. The film was shelved by

Goskino Goskino USSR () is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР) in the Soviet Union. It was a central state directory body for Sovi ...

for twenty years. In 1986, due to

glasnost ''Glasnost'' ( ; , ) is a concept relating to openness and transparency. It has several general and specific meanings, including a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information and the inadmissi ...

policies, the "Conflict Commission" of the Soviet Film-makers Union recommended the re-release of the movie but Goskino refused to act. After a plea from Askoldov at the

Moscow Film Festival The Moscow International Film Festival (, translit. ''Moskóvskiy myezhdunaródniy kinofyestivál''; abbreviated as MIFF) is a film festival first held in Moscow in 1935 and became regular since 1959. From its inception to 1959, it was hel ...

, when the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

was imminent, the film was reconstructed and finally released in 1988. The film won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize at the

38th Berlin International Film Festival The 38th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 12 to 23 February 1988. The festival opened with musical film ''Linie 1'' by Reinhard Hauff. The Golden Bear was awarded to the Chinese film '' Red Sorghum'' directed by Zhang Y ...

in 1988, and four professional

Nika Award The Nika Award (sometimes styled NIKA Award) is the main annual national film award in Russia, presented by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Science, and seen as the national equivalent of the Oscars. In 2022 nominees were announced, b ...

s (1988).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Askoldov, Aleksandr 1932 births 2018 deaths Soviet film directors Male actors from Moscow