A Russian director and producer, born in Irkutsk, Siberia. He lived his childhood in a military family. He completed his studies in history from Nizhny Novgorod University in 1974. A year later, he entered one of the VGIK studios, where he met writer Andrey Tarkovsky. Most of his works were banned in the Soviet Union. He began his film career with documentaries, and won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2011 for Faust. Among his credits is Russian Ark (2002), filmed in a single unedited shot.