Mikhail Kalik

Mikhail Kalik
Михаи́л Ка́лик
Born
Mikhail Naumovich Kalik

(1927-01-27)27 January 1927
Died31 March 2017(2017-03-31) (aged 90)
OccupationFilm director

Mikhail Naumovich Kalik (Russian: Михаи́л Нау́мович Ка́лик; 27 January 1927 – 31 March 2017) was a Soviet and Israeli film director and screenwriter.[1]

Life and career

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A descendant of a prominent Kiev Jewish family, Mikhail Kalik grew up in the heart of Moscow. As a teenager, he spent the war in the evacuation in Central Asia. In 1949, he was accepted into the Moscow Film School (VGIK) where he studied under Grigori Alexandrov.[1] In 1951, during the anti-cosmopolitan campaign under Stalin, he was arrested with several other students and accused of Jewish bourgeois nationalism[2] and planning anti-Soviet terrorist acts.[1][3] A sentence of ten years detention was pronounced against him. He was sent to Lefortovo Prison, then to Ozerlag labor camp near Taishet and later to other GULAG sites. He was released and rehabilitated in the era of de-Stalinization. He came back to VGIK in 1954 under the direction of Sergei Yutkevich and graduated in 1958.[1][4] His first film was Ataman Codr codirected with Boris Rytsarev in 1958.[1] His best known film is Man Follows Sun (1961), about a young boy who in one day experiences numerous facets of live, in his pursuit to see the sun.[1][5]

He emigrated to Israel in 1971. Because of the disastrous critical response he did not make a single feature film there after his first Israeli film Three and One in 1974. Encouraged by Soviet film authorities he directed the autobiographical film And the Wind Returneth in 1991.[6][7][8]

He died on March 31, 2017, after a serious illness. He is buried in Jerusalem.

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Peter Rollberg, George Washington University (2016). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. Rowman / Littlefield. p. 344. ISBN 9781442268425.
  2. ^ Caroline Moine, Andreas Kötzing (2017). Cultural Transfer and Political Conflicts: Film Festivals in the Cold War. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 134. ISBN 9783847005889.
  3. ^ Roman Brackman (2004). The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Lif. Routledge. p. 329. ISBN 9781135758400.
  4. ^ Olga Gershenson (2013). The Phantom Holocaust: Soviet Cinema and Jewish Catastrophe. Rutgers University Press. p. 91. ISBN 9780813561820.
  5. ^ a b Lida Oukaderova (2017). The Cinema of the Soviet Thaw: Space, Materiality, Movement. Indiana University Press. p. 102. ISBN 9780253027085.
  6. ^ a b c Larissa Remennick (2014). Russian Israelis: Social Mobility, Politics and Culture. Routledge. p. 173. ISBN 9781317977698.
  7. ^ And the Wind Returneth on San Francisco Film Festival history.sffs.org
  8. ^ Maslin, Janet (January 14, 1994). "Jews in the New Europe: 10 Films at Lincoln Center". The New York Times.
  9. ^ Howard Thompson, "Screen: 'The Lullaby':Soviet Film Opens at the Cameo Theatre" (The New York Times, May 15,, 1961)
  10. ^ Goodbye, Boys! (1966) USSR rusfilm.pitt.edu
  11. ^ David Shneer (2011). Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War, and the Holocaust. Rutgers University Press. p. 235. ISBN 9780813548845.
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