Kira Takhirovna Kovalenko (, born 12 December 1989) is a Russian film director and screenwriter.

Biography

After school, Kovalenko went to college and graduated in web-design. In 2010-2015 she studied at the

Kabardino-Balkarian State University Kabardino-Balkarian State University (KBSU); ''Kabardino_Balkarskii gosudarstvennii universitet imeni H. M. Berbekova'', often abbreviated КБГУ, ''KBSU'') is a coeducational and public research university located in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balk ...

under

Alexander Sokurov Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov, PAR (; born 14 June 1951) is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a feature film, ''Russian Ark'' (2002), filmed in a single unedited shot, and ''Faust'' (2011), which was honoured with the G ...

. Directors

Kantemir Balagov Kantemir Arturovich Balagov (, ; born 28 July 1991) is a director of Circassians, Circassian descent, screenwriter and cinematographer from the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, in the North Caucasian region of the Russian Federation. He has direc ...

, Alexander Zolotukhin and Vladimir Bitokov were her fellow students. During studies, Kovalenko directed several short movies. After graduation, Kovalenko lived in

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

, then in

St Petersburg 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 ...

and

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 ...

. Her feature-length debut was based on

Fazil Iskander Fazil Abdulovich Iskander (6 March 1929 – 31 July 2016) was a Soviet and Russian"There's no doubt I'm a Russian writer who praised Abkhazia a lot. Unfortunately, I haven't written anything in the Abkhaz language. The choice of Russian culture ...

's novel of the same name and was released in 2016. The movie was included in the competition program of the

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (BNFF), or PÖFF (Pimedate Ööde filmifestival), is an annual film festival held since 1997 in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. PÖFF is one of the largest film festivals in Northern Europe. In 2014, it was ...

and was awarded at the XV International Debut Film Festival ‘Fire Spirit’ in

Khanty-Mansiysk Khanty-Mansiysk (, lit. ''Khanty-Mansi Town''; Khanty: , ''Jomvoćś''; Mansi: , ''Abga'') is a city in west-central Russia. Technically, it is situated on the eastern bank of the Irtysh River, from its confluence with the Ob, in the oil-ri ...

. Kovalenko's second movie '' Unclenching the Fists'' was filmed in

North Ossetia North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

in only 25 days. The movie took the main prize at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...

in 2021 and received a distribution offer by

Mubi Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...

streaming service. Kovalenko and fellow dissident filmmaker

were chosen as Telluride Film Festival guest directors in September 2022. In November 2022, Kovalenko announced her new project under a working title 'Children of hope'. The script is co-authored with Russian writer Marina Stepnova, Alexander Rodnyanskiy's studio AR Content will produce the project.

References

1989 births Living people People from Nalchik Russian cinematographers Russian women film directors Russian screenwriters Russian emigrants to the United States {{Russia-film-director-stub