Russian director whose films pulled no punches
RUSSIAN FILM DIRECTOR
25-2-1959 - 18-5-2013
Aleksei Balabanov, a Russian
director whose films fused grisly violence, sardonic humor and rock music to convey a darkly compelling vision of his chaotic society after communism's
collapse, has died near
St Petersburg. He was 54.
Lenfilm Studios said the cause was a heart attack, the Interfax news agency reported.
In 16 films, Balabanov offered a world of hitmen, shamelessly
corrupt officials and corpses upon corpses in a cinematic pastiche reminiscent of the work of Quentin Tarantino in artistic achievement and exuberantly brash taste. In his 2005 film Blind Man's Bluff, a pair of hitmen steal five kilograms of heroin from their boss during Russia's "Wild West" 1990s, when anything-goes-capitalism was sweeping away communism. They then exchange their leather jackets for suits and jobs in the Kremlin bureaucracy.
In Brother (1997), a man hires his brother as a contract killer whose only loyalty is to his favourite rock group. Stoker (2010) tells of a brain-damaged war veteran who takes care of a factory's furnace. Mobsters keep showing up to use it to dispose of bodies.
"The films of Aleksei Balabanov are a collective portrait of our
country at its most dramatic time in history," Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev wrote on Facebook after the director's death.
Balabanov's movies developed a robust cult
following in Russia and won prizes there. They were shown abroad in art houses and at film
festivals.
Mikhail Trofimenkov, a film critic for the Russian newspaper
Kommersant, called Balabanov "the best Russian film director of the past two decades".
Aleksei Oktyabrinovich Balabanov was born on February 25, 1959, in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), near the border of Europe and Asia in the Ural Mountains. He graduated from Gorky Teachers' Training University with a degree in foreign languages in 1981, then served in the Soviet army as a translator. After his discharge, he was an assistant director at the Sverdlovsk film studio. In 1990, he completed a course of advanced study in film.
Wars were a major theme for Balabanov. His 2002 film, War, is set in Chechnya, the scene of two
Russian conflicts since 1994.
The title of his 2007 film, Cargo 200, was taken from the Soviet army code for bodies of slain Soviet
soldiers. It unfolds in late 1984,
during Russia's war in Afghanistan, and conjures a political and moral landscape drowning in corruption and black-market vodka. A final scene shows the heroine naked and cuffed to a bed, surrounded by three fly-gathering corpses, one of them her fiance.
Cargo 200 is a comment on the social decay that would lead to the Soviet Union's fall. "Balabanov is by nature as an artist a radical conservative, a contradictory but extremely productive combination," the
Russian film critic Andrei Plakhov wrote. "It forces us to compare him to Dostoyevsky or John Ford, since for Balabanov what is important is not the social universe of discourse but the moral one."
Balabanov is survived by his wife, Nadezhda Vasilyeva, a costume designer, and two sons.
Before his death, he was
planning to make a film on Stalin, portraying him as a godfather of crime.
Frequently Asked Questions about this Article…
Lenfilm Studios said Aleksei Balabanov died of a heart attack near St Petersburg on May 18, 2013, a report that was carried by the Interfax news agency.
Balabanov is best known for films such as Brother (1997), Blind Man's Bluff (2005), War (2002), Cargo 200 (2007) and Stoker (2010) — titles that built his reputation and helped his films find audiences in art houses and festivals abroad.
Balabanov's films fused grisly violence, sardonic humor and rock music to portray post‑communist chaos, with recurring themes of war, corruption and moral collapse in Russian society.
Yes — his movies developed a robust cult following in Russia, won prizes at home, and were shown abroad in art houses and at film festivals, giving them international exposure.
Responses included praise from critics and leaders: Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev called his films a collective portrait of the country at a dramatic time, Mikhail Trofimenkov called him the best Russian director of the past two decades, and critic Andrei Plakhov compared his moral focus to Dostoyevsky or John Ford.
The title Cargo 200 comes from the Soviet army code for the bodies of slain soldiers; Balabanov's Cargo 200 (2007) is set in late 1984 during the Soviet war in Afghanistan and depicts social decay, corruption and black‑market life that presaged the Soviet Union's fall.
Born on February 25, 1959 in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Balabanov earned a degree in foreign languages from Gorky Teachers' Training University in 1981, served in the Soviet army as a translator, worked as an assistant director at the Sverdlovsk film studio, and completed advanced film studies in 1990.
Before his death Balabanov was planning a film about Stalin portraying him as a godfather of crime. He is survived by his wife, costume designer Nadezhda Vasilyeva, and two sons.
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