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The Century Anniversary of Sergey Bondarchuk

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Bondarchuk, an actor, director and teacher, laureate of Stalin, Lenin and many other prizes, Hero of Socialist Labor, People's Artist of the USSR. His works were awarded with such prizes as "Oscar", Big Golden Prize, "Golden Owl", "1000 Pearls" and others. He can be called the brightest figure of Russian and world cinema.

The name of Sergei Bondarchuk is inscribed in large letters on the credits of the generally recognized, high-class masterpieces of the big screen, including “War and Peace”, “Othello”, “Boris Godunov”, “Waterloo”, “Steppe”, “Red Tent”, etc.

It should be definitely noted that the master always strived to shoot films based on the works of Mikhail Sholokhov. He filmed the story "The Fate of a Man" (1959), the novels "They Fought for their Country" (1975) and "And Quiet Flows the Don" (1992 - 2006).

The story "The Fate of a Man" was a huge success after publication. In 1959, the film of the same name was shot. S. Bondarchuk acted as a director and performer of the main role of the Soviet soldier Andrei Sokolov, who overcame all the horrors of fascist captivity. This work - Bondarchuk's directorial debut - caused a lot of positive feedback from both viewers and film critics. Mikhail Sholokhov was surprised by the artist's skill in transforming the protagonist.

For the 30th anniversary of the Victory of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War Sergei Bondarchuk filmed chapters of the unfinished novel by Mikhail Sholokhov "They Fought for their Country", where he played one of the roles of Zvyagintsev. This film was the last in the life of another outstanding director and actor Vasily Shukshin, who, with his insight into the essence of the images of Sholokhov's characters, sometimes achieved amazing realism, which could not but affect the overall assessment of the film.

Sergei Bondarchuk all his life dreamed of filming the most ambitious Sholokhov's work the novel "And Quiet Flows the Don". This opportunity presented itself to him in the years when the USSR was collapsing. Mosfilm, which at first expressed a desire to implement this project, abandoned its intentions. Then the customers of the film were Italian producers, who put forward their requirements, including the selection of actors for the main roles. Filming began in 1992, and in 1994 Bondarchuk passed away. After the death of the master, his son Fyodor made the soundtrack for the film, which, as many believe, did not reach the supposed high standard. “This film is a director's tragedy”, the writer’s son Mikhail Sholokhov sad about it.

In general, the cinematic fate of Sergei Bondarchuk was more than successful. He is rightfully called one of the most famous filmmakers in the world.

Larisa Bukina