Rustam Ibragimbekov, the renowned Soviet-era writer behind films including 1994 Oscar winner Burnt by the Sun and the 1970 classic White Sun of the Desert, died in Moscow on Friday, according to multiple reports. He was 83.
Born in Baku, Azerbaijan Ssr on February 5th 1939, Ibragimbekov penned more than 50 films throughout his career, including Guard Me, My Talisman (1986), Close to Eden (1991), The Barber of Siberia (1998), East/West (1999), Broken Bridges (1999) and Nomad: The Warrior (2005), breaking out with the action-comedy White Sun of the Desert, which he and Valentin Ezhov wrote for director Vladimir Motyl.
He co-wrote the historical drama Burnt by the Sun with director Nikita Mikhalkov and watched that film claim the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix on its path to the Oscars.
Ibragimbekov was also a director, producer and playwright who helmed the films Aila (1998), Telefon doveriya (2001) and A Trap for the Ghost, (2011), along with a segment of 1977’s Günlarin bir günü.
Born in Baku, Azerbaijan Ssr on February 5th 1939, Ibragimbekov penned more than 50 films throughout his career, including Guard Me, My Talisman (1986), Close to Eden (1991), The Barber of Siberia (1998), East/West (1999), Broken Bridges (1999) and Nomad: The Warrior (2005), breaking out with the action-comedy White Sun of the Desert, which he and Valentin Ezhov wrote for director Vladimir Motyl.
He co-wrote the historical drama Burnt by the Sun with director Nikita Mikhalkov and watched that film claim the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix on its path to the Oscars.
Ibragimbekov was also a director, producer and playwright who helmed the films Aila (1998), Telefon doveriya (2001) and A Trap for the Ghost, (2011), along with a segment of 1977’s Günlarin bir günü.
- 3/13/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn Photo: Silviu Ghetie/Micro Film 2021 The third edition of the East - West. Golden Arch Awards on October 25 saw Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude's satire Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn win the top prize. On a good night for Romanian cinema, Alexander Nanau's Oscar-nominated documentary about a healthcare scandal, was also named Best Documentary.
The awards, held at the newly restored Khudozhestvenny Cinema in Moscow and opened by screenwriter and chairperson of the Confederation of Cinematographic Unions Rustam Ibragimbekov, who founded the Award, are run by the International Confederation of the Filmmakers Unions and the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund. It aims to celebrate Eurasian films and the awards are voted for by a panel of 23 international film critics and academics.
Rustam Ibragimbekov opens the awards Photo: Amber Wilkinson Georgian writer/director Dea Kulumbegashvili took home the prize for Best Debut for her dark drama Beginning,...
The awards, held at the newly restored Khudozhestvenny Cinema in Moscow and opened by screenwriter and chairperson of the Confederation of Cinematographic Unions Rustam Ibragimbekov, who founded the Award, are run by the International Confederation of the Filmmakers Unions and the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund. It aims to celebrate Eurasian films and the awards are voted for by a panel of 23 international film critics and academics.
Rustam Ibragimbekov opens the awards Photo: Amber Wilkinson Georgian writer/director Dea Kulumbegashvili took home the prize for Best Debut for her dark drama Beginning,...
- 10/27/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Following the Persian New Year of Nowruz * arrive the eight days of the festival where the last works of great filmmakers such as Andrzej Wajda, Cristian Mongiu, Dardenne brothers, Denis Tanovic, Francois Ozon, Sion Sono, Agnieszka Holland, Aki Kaurismaki, Terrence Malick, Ken Loach and three Iranian Masters of Cinema will screen along with several special sidebars.
For the first time in Fajr International Film Festival, Shadow of Horror Midnight Screenings will host six horror films screening, every night at 11:30 pm in a program designed to entice an unaccustomed Iranian audience’s attention to this genre. Five of the features are from South Korea, Japan, Russia, Poland and Mexico. The sixth, an Iranian feature will have its International Premiere.
At least 68 students from 32 countries as well as 52 students from Iran are to take part in the inspiring, educational film making workshops of the 2017 Fajr. The program is called “Darol Fonoun...
For the first time in Fajr International Film Festival, Shadow of Horror Midnight Screenings will host six horror films screening, every night at 11:30 pm in a program designed to entice an unaccustomed Iranian audience’s attention to this genre. Five of the features are from South Korea, Japan, Russia, Poland and Mexico. The sixth, an Iranian feature will have its International Premiere.
At least 68 students from 32 countries as well as 52 students from Iran are to take part in the inspiring, educational film making workshops of the 2017 Fajr. The program is called “Darol Fonoun...
- 4/20/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
White Sun of the Desert
Written by Valentin Ezhov, Rustam Ibragimbekov, Mark Zakharov
Directed by Vladimir Motyl
Soviet Union, 1969
The glimmering cupola on a fondly named Borscht Western chapel, Vladimir Motyl’s 1969 film White Sun of the Desert is a telling contrast to its compatriot Spaghetti Westerns, as it chronicles a few peculiar events of civil war on the Caspian Sea through the eyes of Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov (Anatoli Kuznetsov). The film quickly became an unofficial national treasure, though its statements are offered through the hushed humour of sometimes farcical, often philosophical, performance.
This is a tale of one man stranded on the cusp between a war and his home, his capers peppered by the letters he faithfully scribes to his wife. It is no incidental matter that Fyodor Sukhov’s memories hold a staunch grip on the alabaster skin and scarlet cloth that swathes Katerina Matveyevna (Galina Luchai).
With her voluptuous figure,...
Written by Valentin Ezhov, Rustam Ibragimbekov, Mark Zakharov
Directed by Vladimir Motyl
Soviet Union, 1969
The glimmering cupola on a fondly named Borscht Western chapel, Vladimir Motyl’s 1969 film White Sun of the Desert is a telling contrast to its compatriot Spaghetti Westerns, as it chronicles a few peculiar events of civil war on the Caspian Sea through the eyes of Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov (Anatoli Kuznetsov). The film quickly became an unofficial national treasure, though its statements are offered through the hushed humour of sometimes farcical, often philosophical, performance.
This is a tale of one man stranded on the cusp between a war and his home, his capers peppered by the letters he faithfully scribes to his wife. It is no incidental matter that Fyodor Sukhov’s memories hold a staunch grip on the alabaster skin and scarlet cloth that swathes Katerina Matveyevna (Galina Luchai).
With her voluptuous figure,...
- 12/4/2012
- by Lital Khaikin
- SoundOnSight
The first film won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 94, and while I yet to see it, I'm wondering how Mikhalkov will bring his beloved characters into a post-war premise and if he'll make some kind of social commentary about current day politics. What we do know is that this will be an epic in scope. - #64. The Exodus - The Fortress: Burnt by the Sun 2 Director: Nikita MikhalkovWriter(s): Rustam Ibragimbekov and Mikhalkov Producers: Nikita MikhalkovDistributor: Rights Available. The Gist: Taking place in post-war Russia, this revisits the characters of Mitya (Oleg Menshikov) and Col. Kotov (Nikita Mikhalkov) who were “killed” in the original film....(more) Cast: Mikhalkov as Col. Sergei Petrovich Kotov. Why is it on the list?: The first film won the Grand Prize at the Cannes...
- 1/14/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
- What are names like Jay Hernandez and Jason Scott Lee doing in a Kazakhstan movie? We’ll soon find out. Today we received what looks to be the final one sheet for the film that is Kazakhstan’s official entry, Best Foreign Language Film for the 79th Academy Awards®.Written by Rustam Ibragimbekov, this is set in 18th-century Kazakhstan and tells the story of a boy who is destined to one day unite the three warring tribes of the country. Lee will star as a veteran soldier and master of martial arts who spends his life raising and teaching the destined leader Mansur to lead the Kazakhs to victory and independence. Here is your 1st look:...
- 1/8/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
Pair lead charge into 'Nomad'
Jason Scott Lee and Jay Hernandez are set to topline the indie historical epic The Nomad, which is being executive produced by Milos Forman and Ram Bergman. Ivan Passer (HBO's Stalin) will direct the film from a script by Rustam Ibragimbekov. Nomad is set in 18th-century Kazakhstan and tells the story of a boy who is destined to one day unite the three warring tribes of the country. Lee will star as a veteran soldier and master of martial arts who spends his life raising and teaching the destined leader Mansur to lead the Kazakhs to victory and independence.
- 8/25/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cannes Film review: 'The Barber of Siberia'
Just as the lead character named Tolstoy suffers a little whenever he must own up to not being related to the famous Russian novelist, "The Barber of Siberia" is a sprawling, period epic that suffers in comparison to its rich cinematic and literary heritage. Prospects for a major American distribution deal are dim.
The much-anticipated opening film of the 52nd Cannes International Film Festival, and the first feature from director Nikita Mikhalkov since his Oscar-winning "Burnt by the Sun", "Barber" is ostensibly a love story, but not a very complex or compelling one. At nearly three hours, the mostly English-language film indulges in long sequences of Slavic-style comedy that don't necessarily further the story of an enigmatic American woman's love affair with a charismatic Russian army cadet.
Although she confidently attacks the role, Julia Ormond is allowed to indulge in far too many contemporary nuances in her performance as Jane, a lone woman in Czarist Russia circa 1885 on a mission to help desperate inventor McCracken (Richard Harris) secure funds to finish creating a steam-driven forest-harvesting machine, which he hopes will make him rich. Like most of the cast, she tries to keep the energy level high, but one never feels very connected to her character and rarely laughs with the bemused outsider at her zany hosts.
Oleg Menshikov as Cadet Tolstoy, on the other hand, is terrific as the passionate young man who meets Jane on the train to Moscow. They share some champagne in her compartment and a few laughs as his comrades fumble about. Later, they are both on the street in Moscow when mysterious shooters in black assassinate an official. In one of the film's best scenes, Tolstoy shows he's not the best soldier-in-the-making when he lets one of the assassins go free.
Jane visits McCracken's workshop and watches the old coot almost destroy his invention in one of many comic scenes that fall flat. The plan is for Jane to butter up one Gen. Radkov (Alexey Petrenko) in order to gain access to the grand duke -- a source of completion funds, if you will, for McCracken's tree "barber." Open, aggressive, a smoker and seemingly free to wed, Jane succeeds in charming Radkov, but Tolstoy is thoroughly smitten and obviously a much better match despite his lackluster social status.
From cadets polishing a dance floor to outdoor festivals with vodka-drinking bears to a climactic performance of "The Marriage of Figaro", there are some entertaining moments, but the pacing often slows to a crawl, and the framing device of the story -- Ormond's character revealing to her American Army recruit son his origins -- has weak ongoing gags involving gas masks and crude insults aimed at Mozart.
At one point, Tolstoy risks everything to fight a duel over Jane's honor. But he goes even further down the road to ruin when he becomes convinced she's playing all the angles, which she is. Still, he proposes to her, barely beating Radkov to the punch. She is then forced to reveal that she's not who she seems to be -- certainly not McCracken's daughter, as she claimed -- and relates a horrible fact about her past.
Eventually, as in seemingly all Russian love stories of this size and breadth, the lovers are separated -- he's sent off to prison for attacking Radkov in a jealous fit, and she goes back to the States. Ten years later, she accompanies McCracken to Siberia for a test of his machine and goes searching for Tolstoy, who settled there after serving his sentence.
While visually the film has some nice touches, with Mikhalkov working in widescreen for the first time, the overused narration of Ormond's character doesn't wait for one to absorb the story visually. Time and location titles are also employed needlessly, accentuating the overall stodgy feeling to the storytelling. The director has a splendid cameo as Emperor Alexander III, but Harris is disappointing as the mad inventor -- except for a shot of his character yelling on top of a train steaming through the forests in one of this film's rare transcendent moments, the kind one expects a lot more of from Mikhalkov.
THE BARBER OF SIBERIA
Camera One, ThreeProds.,
France 2 Cinema, Medusa, Barrandov Biografia
Michel Seydoux presents
In association with Intermedia Films
Director: Nikita Mikhalkov
Screenwriters: Rustam Ibragimbekov, Nikita Mikhalkov
Producer: Michel Sedoux
Executive producer: Leonid Vereschagin
Cinematographer: Pavel Lebeshev
Production designer: Vladimir Aronin
Editor: Enzo Meniconi
Costume designers: Natacha Ivanova, Sergey Struchev
Music: Edward Nicolay Artemyev
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jane: Julia Ormond
Tolstoy: Oleg Menshikov
McCracken: Richard Harris
Radkov: Alexey Petrenko
Running time -- 176 minutes
MPAA rating:...
The much-anticipated opening film of the 52nd Cannes International Film Festival, and the first feature from director Nikita Mikhalkov since his Oscar-winning "Burnt by the Sun", "Barber" is ostensibly a love story, but not a very complex or compelling one. At nearly three hours, the mostly English-language film indulges in long sequences of Slavic-style comedy that don't necessarily further the story of an enigmatic American woman's love affair with a charismatic Russian army cadet.
Although she confidently attacks the role, Julia Ormond is allowed to indulge in far too many contemporary nuances in her performance as Jane, a lone woman in Czarist Russia circa 1885 on a mission to help desperate inventor McCracken (Richard Harris) secure funds to finish creating a steam-driven forest-harvesting machine, which he hopes will make him rich. Like most of the cast, she tries to keep the energy level high, but one never feels very connected to her character and rarely laughs with the bemused outsider at her zany hosts.
Oleg Menshikov as Cadet Tolstoy, on the other hand, is terrific as the passionate young man who meets Jane on the train to Moscow. They share some champagne in her compartment and a few laughs as his comrades fumble about. Later, they are both on the street in Moscow when mysterious shooters in black assassinate an official. In one of the film's best scenes, Tolstoy shows he's not the best soldier-in-the-making when he lets one of the assassins go free.
Jane visits McCracken's workshop and watches the old coot almost destroy his invention in one of many comic scenes that fall flat. The plan is for Jane to butter up one Gen. Radkov (Alexey Petrenko) in order to gain access to the grand duke -- a source of completion funds, if you will, for McCracken's tree "barber." Open, aggressive, a smoker and seemingly free to wed, Jane succeeds in charming Radkov, but Tolstoy is thoroughly smitten and obviously a much better match despite his lackluster social status.
From cadets polishing a dance floor to outdoor festivals with vodka-drinking bears to a climactic performance of "The Marriage of Figaro", there are some entertaining moments, but the pacing often slows to a crawl, and the framing device of the story -- Ormond's character revealing to her American Army recruit son his origins -- has weak ongoing gags involving gas masks and crude insults aimed at Mozart.
At one point, Tolstoy risks everything to fight a duel over Jane's honor. But he goes even further down the road to ruin when he becomes convinced she's playing all the angles, which she is. Still, he proposes to her, barely beating Radkov to the punch. She is then forced to reveal that she's not who she seems to be -- certainly not McCracken's daughter, as she claimed -- and relates a horrible fact about her past.
Eventually, as in seemingly all Russian love stories of this size and breadth, the lovers are separated -- he's sent off to prison for attacking Radkov in a jealous fit, and she goes back to the States. Ten years later, she accompanies McCracken to Siberia for a test of his machine and goes searching for Tolstoy, who settled there after serving his sentence.
While visually the film has some nice touches, with Mikhalkov working in widescreen for the first time, the overused narration of Ormond's character doesn't wait for one to absorb the story visually. Time and location titles are also employed needlessly, accentuating the overall stodgy feeling to the storytelling. The director has a splendid cameo as Emperor Alexander III, but Harris is disappointing as the mad inventor -- except for a shot of his character yelling on top of a train steaming through the forests in one of this film's rare transcendent moments, the kind one expects a lot more of from Mikhalkov.
THE BARBER OF SIBERIA
Camera One, ThreeProds.,
France 2 Cinema, Medusa, Barrandov Biografia
Michel Seydoux presents
In association with Intermedia Films
Director: Nikita Mikhalkov
Screenwriters: Rustam Ibragimbekov, Nikita Mikhalkov
Producer: Michel Sedoux
Executive producer: Leonid Vereschagin
Cinematographer: Pavel Lebeshev
Production designer: Vladimir Aronin
Editor: Enzo Meniconi
Costume designers: Natacha Ivanova, Sergey Struchev
Music: Edward Nicolay Artemyev
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jane: Julia Ormond
Tolstoy: Oleg Menshikov
McCracken: Richard Harris
Radkov: Alexey Petrenko
Running time -- 176 minutes
MPAA rating:...
- 5/13/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'Close to Eden
An odd but entrancing tale of civilizations in conflict, "Close to Eden, '' the story of a traditional family in Chinese-held inner Mongolia, may require some patient handling. However, the combination of unusual setting and warm, accessible tone may turn it into a profitable select-site performer.
Set in the very recent past, the film centers around the family of Gombo (Bayaertu), his wife Pagma (Badema), their two children and his mother. They live the centuries-old life of Mongolian nomads, tending their small herds of sheep, cattle and horses and living in a large tent.
The outside world has impinged only slightly on their lives, largely through the accordion that daughter Bourma (Bao Yongyan) has been given by a city-dwelling uncle. However, one day a Russian contract worker, Sergei (Vladimir Gostukhin), falls asleep at the wheel of his truck, becomes stranded and ends up the guest of Gombo and Pagma.
Because Gombo and Pagma have reached the government-imposed limit of three children, Pagma has been urging her husband to go to town and buy condoms and, while he's at it, a television. So Gombo and two horses hitch a ride with Sergei and travel off to a nearby city, a vast jury-rigged collection of apartment blocks, huge industrial plants, and stores crammed with the latest in consumer goods.
For the opening sequences, director Nikita Mikhalkov uses relaxed and patient rhythms to great effect. Typically, he spends as much time watching Gombo catch a dragonfly in flight and showing it to his son Bouin (Wurinile, a tremendously appealing natural talent) or on how the family slaughters a sheep as on more plot-oriented material.
Once Gombo and Sergei get to the city, the pace quickens as the two -- singly and together -- engage in a series of seriocomic escapades. When Gombo leaves for home, the film segues into an elaborate dream sequence in which a drunken uncle (Baoyinhexige) appears as Genghis Khan at the head of a column of soldiers and chastises Gombo for straying from Mongol ways.
The lament for a passing culture is a familiar one, but Mikhalkov has appeared to capture the whole nature of Mongolian life so successfully, the film is unusually persuasive.
Also, by keeping the love between Gombo and Pagma the central focus, Mikhalkov ensures that the prevailing tone will be warm and the issues intensely personalized rather than abstract. Even the vast rolling landscape of the Steppes becomes intimate.
CLOSE TO EDEN
MIRAMAX
Director-Original idea Nikita Mikhalkov
Supervising producer Michel Seydoux
Executive producer Jean-Louis Piel
Story Nikita Mikhalkov, Roustam Ibraguimbekov
Screenplay Roustam Ibraguimbekov
Director of photography Villenn Kaluta
Production designer Aleksei Levtchenko
Editor Joelle Hache
Music Eduard Artemiev
Color
Cast:
Gombo Bayaertu
Pagma Badema
Sergei Valdimir Gostukhin
Running time -- 106 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Set in the very recent past, the film centers around the family of Gombo (Bayaertu), his wife Pagma (Badema), their two children and his mother. They live the centuries-old life of Mongolian nomads, tending their small herds of sheep, cattle and horses and living in a large tent.
The outside world has impinged only slightly on their lives, largely through the accordion that daughter Bourma (Bao Yongyan) has been given by a city-dwelling uncle. However, one day a Russian contract worker, Sergei (Vladimir Gostukhin), falls asleep at the wheel of his truck, becomes stranded and ends up the guest of Gombo and Pagma.
Because Gombo and Pagma have reached the government-imposed limit of three children, Pagma has been urging her husband to go to town and buy condoms and, while he's at it, a television. So Gombo and two horses hitch a ride with Sergei and travel off to a nearby city, a vast jury-rigged collection of apartment blocks, huge industrial plants, and stores crammed with the latest in consumer goods.
For the opening sequences, director Nikita Mikhalkov uses relaxed and patient rhythms to great effect. Typically, he spends as much time watching Gombo catch a dragonfly in flight and showing it to his son Bouin (Wurinile, a tremendously appealing natural talent) or on how the family slaughters a sheep as on more plot-oriented material.
Once Gombo and Sergei get to the city, the pace quickens as the two -- singly and together -- engage in a series of seriocomic escapades. When Gombo leaves for home, the film segues into an elaborate dream sequence in which a drunken uncle (Baoyinhexige) appears as Genghis Khan at the head of a column of soldiers and chastises Gombo for straying from Mongol ways.
The lament for a passing culture is a familiar one, but Mikhalkov has appeared to capture the whole nature of Mongolian life so successfully, the film is unusually persuasive.
Also, by keeping the love between Gombo and Pagma the central focus, Mikhalkov ensures that the prevailing tone will be warm and the issues intensely personalized rather than abstract. Even the vast rolling landscape of the Steppes becomes intimate.
CLOSE TO EDEN
MIRAMAX
Director-Original idea Nikita Mikhalkov
Supervising producer Michel Seydoux
Executive producer Jean-Louis Piel
Story Nikita Mikhalkov, Roustam Ibraguimbekov
Screenplay Roustam Ibraguimbekov
Director of photography Villenn Kaluta
Production designer Aleksei Levtchenko
Editor Joelle Hache
Music Eduard Artemiev
Color
Cast:
Gombo Bayaertu
Pagma Badema
Sergei Valdimir Gostukhin
Running time -- 106 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 10/19/1992
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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