Andrei Konchalovsky

Andrei Sergeyevich MikhalkovKonchalovsky Russian Андрей Сергеевич МихалковКончаловский born 20 August 1937 Moscow is a Russian filmmaker screenwriter actor producer and theater TV director who works in Russia and USA His father was the writer Sergey Mikhalkov 1913 and the brother of Nikita Mikhalkov 1945 who is also a well known Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky was a frequent collaborator of Andrei Tarkovsky 1932 earlier in his career His work has won numerous accolades including the Cannes Grand Prix Spécial du Jury a FIPRESCI Award two Silver Lions three Golden Eagle Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award He studied for ten years at the Moscow Conservatory preparing for a pianists career In 1960 however he met Andrei Tarkovsky and coscripted his movie Andrei Rublev 1966 His first fulllength feature The First Teacher 1964 was favourably received in the Soviet Union and screened by numerous film festivals abroad His second film Asya Klyachinas Story 1967 was suppressed by Soviet authorities When issued twenty years later it was acclaimed as his masterpiece Thereupon Konchalovsky filmed adaptations of Ivan Turgenevs A Nest of Gentle Folk 1969 and Chekhovs Uncle Vanya 1970 with Innokenty Smoktunovsky in the title role His epic Siberiade upon its 1979 release was favourably received at Cannes and made possible his move to the United States in 1980 His most popular Hollywood releases are Marias Lovers 1984 Runaway Train 1985 based on a script by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and Tango Cash 1989 starring Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell In the 1990s Konchalovsky returned to Russia although he occasionally produced historical films for US television such as his adaption of The Odyssey 1997 and the awardwinning remake The Lion in Winter 2003 Konchalovskys fulllength feature House of Fools 2003 with a cameo role by Bryan Adams as himself set in a Chechen psychiatric asylum during the war won him a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival In 2010 Konchalovsky released a longtime passion project of his The Nutcracker in 3D a musical adaptation of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovskys ballet A musical film it mixed live action and 3D animation and starred Elle Fanning John Turturro Nathan Lane and Richard E Grant The film was scored with music from the ballet with additional lyrics by Tim Rice In 2012 Konchalovsky wrote directed and produced The Battle for Ukraine which provided an in depth analysis of how Ukraine to this day struggles to escape from the close embrace of its former big brother His film The Postmans White Nights won the Silver Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival The script is centred around the true story of Aleksey Tryaptisyn a real life postman based in a remote Russian village surrounding the Kenozero lake In 2016 Paradise directed by him won the Silver Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival It was selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards In 2020 at the 77th Venice film festival his film Dear Comrades won a special jury prize