Fyodor Khitruk
Directing
Biography
Fyodor Savelyevich Khitruk (Russian: Фёдор Савельевич Хитрук; 1 May 1917 – 3 December 2012; Tver) was a Russian (and Soviet) animator and animation director. Khitruk was born in Tver (Russian Empire), into a Jewish family. He came to Moscow to study graphic design at the OGIS College for Applied Arts. He graduated in 1936 and started to work with "Soyuzmultfilm" in 1938 as an animator. From 1962 onwards, he worked as a director. His first film "Story of One Crime" was an immense success. Today, this film is seen as the beginning of a renaissance of Soviet animation after a two-decade-long life in the shadows of Socialist realism. Diverging from the “naturalistic” Disney-like canons that were reigning in the 1950-60s in Soviet animated cartoons, he created his own style, which was laconic yet multi-level, non-trivial and vivid. He is the director of outstanding animated short films including such classics as his social satire of bureaucrats, "Man in the Frame" (1966); the philosophic parable, "Island" (1973) about the loneliness of a man in modern society; the biographical film "A Young Man Named Engels – A Portrait in Letters" (1970), based on drawings and letters of young Engels; the parody "Film, Film, Film" (1968); and the anti-war film, "Lion and Bull" (1984). In April 1993, Khitruk and three other leading animators (Yuri Norstein, Andrei Khrzhanovsky, and Eduard Nazarov) founded SHAR Studio, an animation school and studio in Russia. The Russian Cinema Committee is among the share-holders in the studio. In 2008, he released a two-volume book titled "Profession of Animation". He is the grandfather of violin virtuoso Anastasia Khitruk. Khitruk lived in Moscow, where he died in 2012, aged 95.
Known For
They are neither adults nor kids - somewhere in between, living in their separate boys and girls cozy dorms and doing whatever they love to do - inventors, artists, poets, mechanists, scientists and....just dreamers! These enthusiastic and creative folks enjoy their half-adult, half-childish lifestyles and entertain each other with the different tricks and practical jokes. The main hero stands out of the crowd - while the others try to live the normal life socializing as they can, he can never be rested, always coming up with the different unpredictable and unexpected moves, which always make viewers burst with laugh....
Dunno on the Moon
The trials and tribulations of putting a feature film together.
Film, Film, Film
A wooden boy Buratino tries to find his place in life. He befriends toys from a toy theater owned by evil Karabas-Barabas, gets tricked by Alice the Fox and Basilio the Cat and finally discovers the mystery of a golden key given to him by kind Tortila the Tortoise.
The Adventures of Buratino
When the Snow Queen, a lonely and powerful fairy, kidnaps the human boy Kai, his best friend Gerda must overcome many obstacles on her journey to rescue him.
The Snow Queen
According to Winnie-the-Pooh himself, bears love honey very much. That's why it always runs out very quickly. And you can't do without honey, so Winnie, along with Piglet, sets off for a tall tree with a beehive hanging from it. Winnie fearlessly climbs up to the beehive on a balloon, singing a song about a little cloud.
Winnie-the-Pooh
An animated adaptation of the classic story of Nils Holgerson, a naughty boy who is transformed to a very little dwarf and goes through many adventures, flying with a band of wild geese.
The Enchanted Boy
No description available.
Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories from My Childhood
A prince discovers an enchanted beauty turned into a frog by Koschei the Immortal. After Koschei steals her again, the prince goes on a dangerous quest to free the land of the evil.
The Frog Princess
A poor girl was given an impossible task by her stepmother: to gather snowdrops in a winter forest. Suddenly she stumbled across twelve brothers who happened to be the twelve months.
The Twelve Months
A boy finds his way into the Little Red Riding Hood cartoon in order to save the girl from the Big Bad Wolf.
Petia and Little Red Riding Hood
Photo studio "Contemporary" in a provincial town lives with its everyday problems. The director is concerned over the failure to fulfill the planned targets, receptionist Alevtina wants to get married, and photographer Vladimir Oreshnikov dreams of becoming a professional photographer. But suddenly luck smiles on Oreshnikov. He takes 20 rubles form the worker's mutual aid fund, buys a government lottery bond and wins 10,000 rubles. Oreshnikov wants to receive the win himself, but his colleagues object to him, because the money that he spent on the bond were public, hence the win should be divided equally among all workers. It creates a controversial situation, which is successfully resolved on the very eve of the New Year, under the chiming clock...
Zigzag of Success
On the eve of the New Year, several children write a letter to Father Frost asking him to send them a Christmas tree for the holiday, and then they make a Snowman who should take the letter to the magic forest. When midnight arrives, under the beat of a clock, the Snowman comes to life and, together with a small yard puppy, nicknamed Druzhok, sets off in search of Father Frost. (Note: Released in the United States as Spunky the Snowman in a shortened version of approximately 8 minutes.)
The Snowman-Postman
Based on the work of Nikolay Gogol. Handsome blacksmith Vakula who fell in love with village beauty, Oksana, is ready to do anything for her liking. Even to fly on the devil's back to Saint-Petersburg and ask the Empress for the slippers that he can present his sweetheart.
The Night Before Christmas
A 1981 documentary film directed by Yuri Ozerov. It showed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow. The director was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1982. The film was selected as the Soviet entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 54th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
O Sport, You Are Peace!
Volume 1 (1962-1968): "Story of One Crime", "Man in the Frame", "My Green Crocodile", "There Lived Kozyavin", "Mountain of Dinosaurs", "Passion of Spies", "Glass Harmonica", "Ball of Wool", "Singing Teacher", "Film, Film, Film".
Masters of Russian Animation - Volume 1
The action of the animation film takes place in an oasis. Beasts (a Hare, a Monkey, a cub of a Zebra) look at the well, discover that the water reflects them. The Monkey nearly dies, trying to quarrel with her reflection. Meanwhile, a Lion goes hunting, catches up and kills an adult Zebra. The animals consoled the orphaned cub of Zebra. The Lion, on the advice of the Snake, orders that the beasts themselves later come to him for dinner.
The Lion and the Hare
A film about young architects who are building a new city in Siberia (Norilsk), their anxieties, concerns, and victories. Story of subtle psychology of love and personal happiness experienced men and women, behind the shoulders of which the pain of the past
The Love of Mankind
With the young Friedrich Engel’s letters and drawings from the years between 1838 and 1842, a unique cinematic portrait is created. The viewer thus gets to know the young Engels personally, learning about the significant moments of his development from a bourgeois-liberal upbringing to the theoretical partner of Karl Marx. Later be awarded the Gold Dove at the International Leipzig Documentary and Short Film Week.
A Young Man Named Engels – A Portrait in Letters
Winnie-the-Pooh trilogy.
Winnie-the-Pooh
On New Year's Eve, two lost in the woods toys try to prove to wild and hungry predators that they're not good to eat.