Boris Valentinovich Durov (; 12 March 1937 – 5 April 2007) 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 ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n film director and screenwriter. His 1979 action film ''

Pirates of the 20th Century ''Pirates of the 20th Century'' (, translit. ''Piraty XX veka'') is a 1980 Soviet action/adventure film about modern piracy. The film was directed by Boris Durov, the story was written by Boris Durov and Stanislav Govorukhin. The film was ...

'' became the highest-grossing Soviet movie of all time. He was named

Merited Artist of the Russian Federation Merited Artist of the Russian Federation (, ''Zasluzhenny artist Rossiyskoy Federatsii''), also known as Honored Artist of Russia, is an honorary title in the Russian Federation. The title is awarded to actors, directors, filmmakers, writers, d ...

in 2000.

Biography

Boris Durov was born in Sloviansk, Ukrainian SSR (modern-day

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

). He finished the Kazan Suvorov Military School in 1955 and the Riga Higher Military Aviation Engineering School in 1960. At that point he decided not to continue the military career and entered the director's faculty at

VGIK The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, officially the S. A. Gerasimov All-Russian University of Cinematography (, meaning ''All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov''), a.k.a. VGIK, is a film school in Moscow, ...

. He studied under Yakov Segel along with

Stanislav Govorukhin Stanislav Sergeyevich Govorukhin (; 29 March 1936 – 14 June 2018) was a Soviet Union, Soviet and Russians, Russian film director, actor, screenwriter, producer and politician. He was named People's Artist of Russia in 2006. His movies often fe ...

. Upon graduation in 1967 they co-directed their first feature film: ''

Vertical Vertical is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Vertical direction, the direction aligned with the direction of the force of gravity, up or down * Vertical (angles), a pair of angles opposite each other, formed by two intersecting s ...

''. It was one of the first Soviet movies dedicated to

mountaineering Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become mounta ...

and also featured

Vladimir Vysotsky Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky (25 January 193825 July 1980) was a Soviet singer-songwriter, poet, and actor who had an immense and enduring effect on Soviet culture. He became widely known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which ...

in a minor role.Vladimir Sergeev
People took notebooks to Vertical to write down Vladimir Vysotsky's songs
article at

Komsomolskaya Pravda ''Komsomolskaya Pravda'' (; ) is a daily Russian tabloid newspaper that was founded in 1925. Its name is in reference to the official Soviet newspaper '' Pravda'' (English: 'Truth'). History and profile During the Soviet era, ''Komsomolskaya ...

, 24 January 2013 (in Russian) As Vysotsky later recalled, "it was my first movie in the sense that I worked as an author (for the first time I wrote songs for a movie) – I was the author of both songs and music". All songs turned into instant hits, they were released by the

Melodiya Melodiya () is a Russian record label. It was the state-owned major record company of the Soviet Union. History Melodiya was established in 1964 as the "All-Union Gramophone Record Firm of the USSR Ministry of Culture Melodiya" in accordance wi ...

record label on the

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

and basically started Vysotsky's musical career. The movie itself became one of the leaders of the 1967 Soviet box office, reaching the 13th place (10th place among Soviet-produced movies) with 32.8 million viewers. Since then Durov had worked at various studios (

Odessa Film Studio Odesa Film Studio (, ) was a Ukrainian, formerly Soviet, film studio in Odesa. Founded in 1919, it was one of the first studios in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. It is partially owned by the government and supervised by the State Pro ...

Studio Ekran Studio Ekran () was a Russian (Soviet Union's until 1991) TV film studio. It was founded in 1968 and produced made-for-TV movies, mini-series and animated cartoons. In 1994, after reorganization of Channel One Russia, Ostankino TV channel, it was c ...

Gorky Film Studio Gorky Film Studio () is a municipally-owned film studio in Moscow, Russia. By the end of the Soviet Union, Gorky Film Studio had produced more than 1,000 films. Many film classics were filmed at the Gorky Film Studio throughout its history and ...

Moldova-Film ''Moldova-Film'' (, ) is a Moldovan film studio and production company founded in 1952 in the Moldavian SSR. History Moldova-Film was founded in 1947 in Chişinău as a branch of the Central Studio for Documentary Film. In 1949 the branch was ...

) directing movies in various genres, from drama and comedy to adventure and

children's film A children's film, or family film, is a film genre that generally relates to children in the context of home and family. Children's films are made specifically for children and not necessarily for a general audience, while family films are made f ...

s. Yet none of them matched the success of his first film or that of Govorukhin's movies. In 1979 they teamed up again and wrote a screenplay for what would be known as the first Soviet

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

– ''

''.Veronika Nikitina
Pirates of the 20th Century. How the highest-grossing film of the 1980s was shot
article at

Rossiyskaya Gazeta ' () is a Russian newspaper published by the Government of Russia. History ''Rossiyskaya Gazeta'' was founded in 1990 by the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR during the ''glasnost'' reforms in Soviet Union, shortl ...

, 9 June 2014 (in Russian) Shot in

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

, it featured an action-packed plot about a Soviet

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...

seized by modern-day pirates. It was based on real-life events that took place during the 1950-1970s when

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

ese pirates attacked passing ships, including the Soviet ones. Since the information about Soviet ships wasn't published in domestic press, the authors based their screenplay on the story about the attack on the

Italia Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

n ship that happened at the end of the 1970s when all crew members were killed.uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

Biography

Selected filmography

References

External links