Aleksei Balabanov

Aleksei Oktyabrinovich Balabanov (25 February 1959 – 18 May 2013) was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and producer, a member of European Film Academy. He started from creating mostly arthouse pictures but gained significant mainstream popularity in action crime drama movies Brother (1997) and Brother 2 (2000), both of which starred Sergei Bodrov, however, Balabanov became better known for his films Cargo 200 (2007), Morphine (2008) and A Stoker (2010).

Life

Aleksei Oktyabrinovich Balabanov was born on 25 February 1959, in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg).

In 1981 Balabanov graduated from Translation Department of the Gorky Pedagogical University of Foreign Languages. He then served in the Soviet Army as an officer-interpreter. After his discharge, from 1983 to 1987 he worked as an assistant film director at Sverdlovsk Film Studio. Balabanov shot his first film in 1987, in the Urals. The script of the film was written overnight. This low-budget work was filmed in a restaurant. Later Balabanov studied at the experimental workshop "Auteur Cinema" of the High Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors, graduating in 1990. In 1994 Balabanov together with Sergey Selyanov and Viktor Sergeyev founded the production company CTV.

He was married to costume designer Nadezhda Vasilyeva. He had two sons.

Death

Balabanov died on 18 May 2013 of a heart attack. Lying in repose at "Lenfilm" by the will of Balabanov was not carried out. The funeral took place at the Smolensky Cemetery.