Grigory Chukhrai is a Soviet film director, honored artist, screenwriter with a fate worthy of becoming an example for the modern generation.
Three times wounded in the war, he managed to survive in order to convey his unique creativity to the viewer.
Grigory Chukhrai: biography of the Soviet film director
Gregory was born in Melitopol (Ukraine, Zaporizhzhya region) on May 23, 1921. His father - Naum Zinovievich Rubanov was a military man. Mom - Klavdia Petrovna Chukhrai after a divorce from her husband in 1924 met a man who became step-father of Gregory. It was Pavel Antonovich Litvinenko, who worked as the chairman of the collective farm and laid the best human features in the upbringing of the boy.
At the end of 1939, Grigory Chukhrai was drafted into the army. He began to serve as a cadet of the regimental school of the battalion of the 134th Infantry Division in the city of Mariupol. In the Great Patriotic War, he submitted a report on enrollment in the airborne troops, which was satisfied by the command. So, being a paratrooper, Grigory Chukhrai participated in battles of different fronts, in the defense of Stalingrad, often jumped behind the enemy lines with a parachute, and was wounded several times. In August 1944 he became a member of the CPSU (b), and in December 1945, being in the rank of senior lieutenant, he was fired from the wound to the reserve. Grigory Chukhrai received many awards for the front line traveled, including the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War, the medals “For the Defense of Stalingrad” and “For the Victory over Germany”.
First steps to the cinema
Upon returning in 1946 from the front, the future director Grigory Chukhrai, whose filmography is shocking with the veracity and inner strength of films, entered the VGIK, the directing department. While working as an assistant to the director, he completed his internship in the painting by M. Romm “Admiral Ushakov”. After graduation, in 1953, Gregory was invited to stay at Mosfilm, but a promising young man decided to return to Ukraine, where he got a job at the Kiev film studio first as an assistant and then as a second director.
Military "Forty-first"
In 1955, at the request of M. Romm and A. Pyryev, Grigory Chukhrai (photos are presented in the article) was transferred to Mosfilm.
There, the author proceeded to the creation of the first independent film, “Forty-First” (1956), which was based on the story of B. Lavrenev. The work was positively evaluated by the audience and won a special prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. This picture is about the doomed love of two people who are on the opposite sides of class barricades, about the sincere, deep feelings of a man and a woman, which Isolda Izvitskaya and Oleg Strizhenov, who became symbols of the era of the 1950s, heartily played. This picture, in which everything is really strong, sincere and pressing, makes us not only believe what is happening on the screen, but also empathize with all my heart. Although there are no deaths in front of the camera lenses and there are no enemy soldiers, the director Grigory Chukhrai managed to make the viewer deeply penetrate wartime, showing that even in the most acute, terrible historical moments, life goes on and people love each other, no matter what.
Triumphant Ballad of a Soldier
Chukhrai’s next film, The Ballad of a Soldier (1959), was successful, she also triumphantly walked around the world screens, won two prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and amazed contemporaries with a deep insight into the psychology of the individual, inner harmony and artistic integrity.
The idea of this film from Gregory Chukhrai arose as a student. He, the war veteran, really wanted to tell about his comrades, many of whom did not live to see peacetime. To help with this plan, the young director was helped by screenwriter Valentin Yezhov, who also went through the war and wished to tell the truth, honestly, without loud phrases, in simple human words about his peer, a soldier-hero who gave his life for his homeland. The main character of the picture, Alyosha Skvortsov, who was brilliantly played by Vladimir Ivashov, became a vivid symbol of the Russian soldier of World War II.
"Clear Sky" by Gregory Chukhrai
The film "Clear Sky" (1961) was devoted to comprehension in the history of the country of the Stalin period. This is the story of the "Stalinist falcon", a fearless Soviet pilot who survived German captivity, expelled from the party, deprived of the title Hero of the Soviet Union, but remained a blindly believing Communist.
A brilliant acting ensemble was presented in the picture: Nina Drobysheva, Evgeny Urbansky, Oleg Tabakov.
In 1964, a 2-episode dramatic film “Once upon a time there was an old man with an old woman” was released, telling about the life of people from the Russian hinterland, namely the old Gusakovs. At the end of their life, they faced difficult tests: a fire destroyed the housing, which forced an elderly couple to go to their daughter Nina in the Arctic, whose life did not work out. The film tells about the human race for happiness, and the name of the picture refers the viewer to Pushkin's fairy tale about a goldfish.
About the mother of the deserter
The next work - “Quagmire” appeared on the screens in 1977. This is a film about the mother of the deserter - Matryona Bystrova (Nonna Mordyukova), who lost her husband at the front, then her eldest son. Trying to protect the youngest child from the war, a quiet, shy Dmitry (Andrey Nikolaev), she decided to hide him in the attic.
Saving her son, the mother condemned herself to torment of conscience, and her child - to spiritual death. Every day, Dmitry turns into a hunted and evil animal, whose life consists of food, whining, accusations of all the troubles of the mother and constant fear. The private story of the mother of the deserter grows in the context of the film to epic proportions, making this work the most significant work of war. At first, Grigory Chukhrai wanted to name the picture “Atypical History”, because the mother was forced to shelter the child not from enemies, but from her own.
“Life is beautiful” in a fictional country
The joint Soviet-Italian work Life is Beautiful (1980) with the participation of Ornella Muti, an Italian movie star, tells of a fictional country ruled by a military junta and any free thought brutally suppressed. Taxi driver Antonio Murillo becomes involved in the political struggle of the underground against dictatorship. Dreaming of the profession of a pilot and his own aircraft, he becomes a victim of denunciation, finds himself in prison, where he is tortured. Thanks to his inventiveness, he managed to organize a jailbreak and even from the country.
In 1985, co-authored with M. Volodsky and Yu. Shvyrev, Grigory Chukhrai, whose filmography is mainly devoted to wartime, made the documentary "I Will Teach You to Dream" (1985). The work is dedicated to the memory of the teacher and great director Mark Donskoy.
Director Grigory Chukhrai: personal life
The personal life of the director Grigory Chukhrai is similar to his work - real, piercing, sincere. The director met his future wife Iraida Penkova in 1942 in Essentuki, where he was sent as part of the landing troops. Together with her friends, a 21-year-old student at a local pedagogical institute dug anti-tank ditches, and went to dances in the evenings. There they met two halves of one whole. When the Germans entered the city, the young man was transferred to other positions, and Iraida remained in the city. For two years, Grigory Chukhrai, whose personal life did not make sense without Iraida, was looking for his love, but to no avail. Then he wrote to the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, and a miracle happened: the girl read this message and responded. In 1944, Grigory Chukhrai returned to the city liberated from German invaders, and on May 9 the couple married. Iraida received a huge bouquet of lilacs as a present from her groom. A year later, in 1945, along with the wedding anniversary, the young family celebrated the Great Victory. Since then, May 9 has become a double holiday for spouses, and lilacs - the most favorite flowers. Together, Gregory and Iraida have lived for more than half a century. The children of the director are son Pavel, who repeated his father’s path and became a film director, and daughter Elena, who graduated from the VGIK film science department.
