Avdotya (Dunya) Smirnova (; born 29 June 1969) is a Russian screenwriter, film director, producer, TV host and literary critic, winner of numerous awards and accolades, founder of the charity foundation .
Biography
Early years and family
Avdotya Smirnova was born to actors Natalya Rudnaya and Andrei Smirnov. Her grandfather Sergey Smirnov was a Soviet writer and historian.
Smirnova has been interested in cinema since childhood. When her father forbade her to enter
Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography
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, ...
, she went to MSU Philology Department. After three years she transferred to GITIS, but didn’t finish her studies.
In 1987 and 1988, Smirnova worked at
Mosfilm
Mosfilm (, ''Mosfil’m'' , initialism and portmanteau of Moscow Films) is a film studio in Moscow which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's fi ...
samizdat
Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...
magazine. At age 20, Smirnova married Arkady Ippolitov and moved to
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
with him. In 1995, she was invited to
Kommersant
(, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily ...
and emerged as a journalist, she contributed to
Afisha
''Afisha'' ( — "Poster") was a Russian entertainment and lifestyle magazine published from April 1999 to December 2015 in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and 12 other Russia's major cities. In its peak years ''Afishas readership reached approximatel ...
, Vogue, Seans, and other magazines. For some time in the early 2000s she worked as a speechwriter for
Union of Right Forces
The Union of Right Forces (URF). was a Russian liberal-conservative political public organization and former party, initially founded as an electoral bloc in 1999 and associated with free market reforms, privatization, and the legacy of the "yo ...
and
Anatoly Chubais
Anatoly Borisovich Chubais (; born 16 June 1955) is a Russian- Israeli politician and economist who was responsible for privatization in Russia as an influential member of Boris Yeltsin's administration in the early 1990s. During this period, ...
.
TV career
In 2002 to 2014, Smirnova co-hosted ''
The School for Scandal
''The School for Scandal'' is a comedy of manners written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 May 1777.
Plot
Act I
Scene I: Lady Sneerwell, a wealthy young widow, and her hireling S ...
'' with her long-time friend, Russian writer Tatyana Tolstaya. The program received
TEFI
TEFI () is an annual award given in the Russian television industry, presented by the Russian Academy of Television. It has been awarded since 1994. TEFI is presented in various sectors (up to 50 nominations in 2008), such as television shows ...
Viktor Tsoi
Viktor Robertovich Tsoi (, ; 21 June 1962 – 15 August 1990) was a Russian singer-songwriter and actor who co-founded Kino, one of the most popular and influential bands in the history of Russian music.
Born and raised in Leningrad (mode ...
. In 1993, she wrote the ''Butterfly'' documentary, also in collaboration with Uchitel. In 1995, '' Gisele's Mania'' based on Smirnova’s screenplay was released. In 2000, Alexey Uchitel released '' His Wife's Diary'' based on Smirnova's screenplay. Smirnova was awarded at The Hartley-Merrill International Screening Competition.
Other movies written by Smirnova are '' The Stroll'' (2003), '' The Connection'' (2006), '' Gloss'' (2007), '' Fathers and Sons'' (2008), '' 9th of May: Personal Perspective''. All films met mostly positive responses both by critics and the public.
Director
'' The Connection'', released in 2006, became Smirnova's first experience as a director. Her comedy drama ''
Two Days
''Two Days'' () is a 2011 Russian romantic comedy-drama film directed by Avdotya Smirnova.
Cast
*Fyodor Bondarchuk as Pyotr Drozdov, Deputy Minister of Economy and Development
*Kseniya Rappoport as Maria Ilinichna
*Evgeny Muravich as Vladimir Niko ...
'' (2011) collected many awards but was much criticized for romanticizing the state officials as one of the protagonists and main hero in the movie was running for governor's post. In parallel with Smirnova's real life marriage to a top-ranking state official, critics perceived the film as an attempt to whitewash the image of the government employees.
In 2012, she released '' Kokoko'', a movie co-written with Anna Parmas and directed by Smirnova. The tragicomedy about a Russian museum worker brought its main actress Anna Mikhalkova the Best Prize for acting at
Kinotavr
Kinotavr (), also known as the Sochi Open Russian Film Festival was an open film festival held in the resort city of Sochi, Russia annually in June since 1991, until it was cancelled in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.Peterburg: only by love'' cinema almanac, a so-called love letter in a movie form to the
cultural capital
In the field of sociology, cultural capital comprises the social assets of a person (education, intellect, style of speech, style of dress, social capital, etc.) that promote social mobility in a stratified society. Cultural capital functions as ...
of Russia.
In 2018, Smirnova released ''The Story of a Single Purpose''. The script is based on a true story that happened to 38-years old
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...
.
In 2021, Smirnova released ''Vertinsky''—an 8-series film about prominent Russian
chansonnier
A chansonnier (, , Galician and , or ''canzoniéro'', ) is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings of songs, hence literally " song-books"; however, some manuscripts are call ...
beach soccer
Beach soccer, also known as beach football, sand football or sand soccer, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand between two teams of five players each.
Association football has long been played informally on ...
that ended in 2015. He graduated from Sergey Selyanov's course at the
Saint Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television
Saint Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television () is a public university located in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was founded in 1918.
History
Founded September 9, 1918, by decree of the Sovnarkom of the RSFSR in Petrograd as the Higher I ...
and currently works as a producer.
In 2012, Smirnova launched Vikhod charity foundation in St Petersburg. The foundation helps people with ASD in many aspects of their lives, it conducts educational, therapy, art and employment programmes. Since 2012, the foundation grew into a community with its own art studio, orchestra, training apartment of assisted living, etc. In the same year, she was awarded Woman of Year prize by GQ.
In 2012, Smirnova married Russian politician
Anatoly Chubais
Anatoly Borisovich Chubais (; born 16 June 1955) is a Russian- Israeli politician and economist who was responsible for privatization in Russia as an influential member of Boris Yeltsin's administration in the early 1990s. During this period, ...
.
In 2014, Smirnova signed an open letter of KinoSouz in support of Ukraine during the annexation of Crimea. In 2022, Smirnova signed an open letter to Vladimir Putin demanding to stop the
2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
. In March 2022, she left Russia together with her husband Chubais, who resigned from the post of Special Presidential Envoy.