Slava Tsukerman
Directing
Biography
Vladislav "Slava" Mendelevich Tsukerman (Russian: Сла́ва (Владисла́в Менделе́вич) Цукерма́н; March 9, 1940 – March 2, 2026) was a Russian film director of Jewish origin. He was born in the Soviet Union and emigrated in 1973 with his wife Nina Kerova to Israel. In 1976 he moved to New York City. He is best known for producing, directing, and writing the screenplay for the 1982 cult film Liquid Sky. He also directed the 2004 documentary Stalin's Wife (about Nadezhda Alliluyeva) and the 2008 film Perestroika. Today, he resides in New York City with his wife and producing partner Nina Kerova. In the 1960s he studied at the Moscow Institute of Civil Engineering (MISI), where he began creating. Tsukerman made his first film at 21 years of age, titled I Believe in Spring. It was the first independent short fiction film in Soviet history. It won first prize at the All-Union Festival of Amateur Films in Moscow. It went on to win a prize at the Montreal World Film Festival. In the 1970s he immigrated to Israel and worked for Israeli television. There, he filmed a documentary titled Once Upon a Time There Were Russians in Jerusalem. The film won Best Documentary and Best Director at The World Television Film Festival in Hollywood.
Known For
An alien creature invades New York's punk subculture in its search for an opiate released by the brain during an orgasm.
Liquid Sky
The greatest cult horror and science fiction films of all-time are studied in vivid detail in the second volume of Time Warp. Includes groundbreaking classics like "Night of the Living Dead," and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," and sci-fi gems such as "Blade Runner," and "A Clockwork Orange."
Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi
Top astrophysicist Sasha Greenberg has spent the past 17 years working in the United States. An invitation to speak at a Congress on Cosmology in his native Moscow brings him home for the first time to confront colleagues, and unanswered personal questions. As Russia undergoes perestroika, public and private lives are radically re-assessed and Sasha sees the social and sexual upheavals as a crisis
Perestroika
A beautiful peasant girl is romanced and abandoned by a young nobleman.
Poor Liza
At the tender age of sixteen Nadezhda Alliluyev married Joseph Stalin, twenty three years her senior. Throughout their fourteen years of family life, Nadezhda stood by as Stalin transformed from the ordinary revolutionary into the unlimited dictator of Russia - a semi-god, whose portraits replaced Christian orthodox icons in the corners of peasant's huts. One morning she was found dead in her bed, revolver by her side. Up to this day, historians continue the heated debate as to whether she had killed herself or was murdered by Stalin. Tsukerman's film is an attempt to solve the riddles of the not-so-distant past, weaving stories within stories and blending commentary from remaining relatives, friends, and historians with rare archival footage. The film provides a fascinating overview of the early history of the USSR while simultaneously exploring the myriad questions surrounding this complex relationship.
Stalin's Wife
A film about reflection, where the hero argues with himself.
A Night for Reflection
Lost comedy, something like a stylization of an old Russian musical.
Vaudeville On Vaudeville
Made when director Vladislav “Slava” Tsukerman was 21, this award-winning short film – the Soviet Union's first independent short film – tracks the chase for a girl's affection as spring arrives.
I Believe in Spring
Retrospective documentary on the making of the low-budget sci-fi cult classic Liquid Sky (1982).
Liquid Sky Revisited
A builders' trip to the virgin land.