Wadim Jussupowitsch Abdraschitow

Vadim Yusupovich Abdrashitov (Russian: Вадим Юсупович Абдрашитов , Tatar: Вадим Йосыф улы Габдерәшитов ; 19 January 1945 – 12 February 2023) was a Russian film director. He was internationally renowned as one of Russian cinema's most notable independent directors, with awards from the Berlin and Venice Film Festivals, and was a People's Artist of Russia.

Abdrashitov was born in Ukraine to a Tatar father and a Russian mother. He moved all over the Soviet Union with his father's military assignments.

Abdrashitov was so impressed with the space flight of the first Russian cosmonaut that he left his parents and moved to Moscow to study nuclear physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Around that time, he developed an interest in amateur filmmaking, and he transferred to the Мendeleev University of Chemical Technology because it was equipped with a film studio for students. His cultural and artistic interests developed during the "Thaw".

After graduation as an engineer, he worked as a manager at the Moscow Electric-Vacuum Industry, which was making colour TV tubes.

From 1970 to 1974, Abdrashitov studied film directing at the Moscow Institute of Cinematography (Gerasimov Institute).

Abdrashitov's directorial debut was Stop Potapov! (1974), a satirical comedy based on the screenplay by Grigori Gorin. In 1975 Abdrashitov met with the unknown writer Aleksandr Mindadze, which began a collaboration that lasted for the next 12 films over 30 years.

His 1997 film Time of a Dancer was shown in the Stalker Human Rights Film Festival's regional presentation in Rostov-on-Don in 2010, where he engaged in discussion with the audience.

Abdrashitov's films are often characterized by protagonists delving into self-exploration. His films have uncomfortable, challenging and intellectual themes; however, the director avoids depiction of graphic violence in all his films. Instead, misery is alluded to in more creative and at times surrealist ways.

In 1990, he was a member of the jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.

In 2016, he became a member of the board of trustees for the Fazil Iskander International Literary Award.

Abdrashitov also acted as the president of the Russian Guild of Film Directors and the Stalker Human Rights Film Festival.[10][11]

Abdrashitov was married to artist Natella Toidze, a member of the Russian Academy of Arts.[12]

Abdrashitov died on 12 February 2023, at the age of 78, from COVID-19, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia.[13][14]