Alexey Uchitel

Aleksei Yefimovich Uchitel Russian ??????? ???????? ??????? born 31 August 1951 Leningrad is a Russian film director screenwriter and producer In 2002 he received the title Peoples Artist of Russia Uchitel was born on 31 August 1951 in Leningrad to the family of documentary filmmaker Yefim Uchitel In 1975 he graduated from VGIK worked at the Leningrad studio of documentary films In 1990 he founded his film studio Rock Uchitels directorial debut was the film Giseles Mania In 2000 he received the Nika Award the Kinotavr Grand Prix and the Crystal Globe nomination for His Wifes Diary The film was about the last love affair of Ivan Bunin His 2003 film The Stroll was entered into the 25th Moscow International Film Festival His 2005 film Dreaming of Space won the Golden George at the 27th Moscow International Film Festival In 2006 he was a member of the jury at the 28th Moscow International Film Festival His 2010 film The Edge was selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards but it did not make the final shortlist His film Break Loose was selected to be screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival The romantic drama Matilda directed by Uchitel about the relationship between ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya and Nicholas II was released on 23 October 2017 The picture became controversial after State Duma deputy Natalia Poklonskaya led a campaign to ban the film on religious grounds