A Russian director, born on December 28, 1903, in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. He is known for The Cranes Are Flying (1957), True Friends (1954), and Zagovor obrechyonnykh (1950). He was appointed Deputy Minister of Film in the fifties. He married Zhanna Valachi, the daughter of the Italian consul. In 1933, he enrolled at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts. He died on March 27, 1973, in Moscow, Russia.