Avdotya Smirnova

Avdotya (Dunya ) Andreevna Smirnova (Russian: Авдотья (Дуня) Андреевна Смирнова; born 29 June 1969; Moscow) is a Russian film director, screenwriter, producer, TV host and literary critic, winner of numerous awards and accolades, founder of the charity foundation Vikhod. She is a daughter of famous Soviet-Russian director and actor Andrei Smirnov. Avdotya Smirnova was born in Moscow, to actors Natalya Rudnaya and Andrei Smirnov. Her grandfather Sergey Smirnov was a Soviet writer and historian. Smirnova has been interested in cinema since childhood. When her father forbade her to enter Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, she went to MSU Philology Department. After three years she transferred to GITIS, but didn’t finish her studies. In 1987-88, Smirnova worked at Mosfilm with Sergei Solovyov, in the meantime performing in punk-rock band Tupie and contributing to Urlait samizdat magazine. At the age of 20, Smirnova married Arkady Ippolitov and moved to Leningrad with him. Several years later, in 1995, she was invited to Kommersant and emerged as a journalist, she contributed to Afisha, Vogue, Seans, and other magazines. For some time in the early 2000s she worked as a speechwriter for Union of Right Forces and Anatoly Chubais. In 2002-2014 Smirnova co-hosted The School for Scandal with her long-time friend, Russian writer Tatyana Tolstaya. The program received TEFI award in 2003 in Best Talk Show nomination. Smirnova wrote her first screenplay in 1992. Together with Alexei Uchitel she created The Last Hero (Russian movie) about Kino leader Viktor Tsoi. In 1993, she wrote the Butterfly documentary, also in collaboration with Uchitel. In 1995, Gisele's Mania based on Smirnova’s screenplay was released. In 2000, Alexey Uchitel released His Wife's Diary based on Smirnova's screenplay. Smirnova was awarded at The Hartley-Merrill International Screening Competition. Other movies written by Smirnova are The Stroll (2003), The Connection (2006), Gloss (2007), Fathers and Sons (2008), 9th of May: Personal Perspective. All films met mostly positive responses both by critics and the public. The Connection, released in 2006, became Smirnova's first experience as a director. Her comedy drama Two Days (2011) collected many awards but was much criticized for romanticizing the state officials as one of the protagonists and main hero in the movie was running for governor's post. In parallel with Smirnova's real life marriage to a top-ranking state official, critics perceived the film as an attempt to whitewash the image of the government employees. In 2012, she released Kokoko, a movie co-written with Anna Parmas and directed by Smirnova. The tragicomedy about a Russian museum worker brought its main actress Anna Mikhalkova the Best Prize for acting at Kinotavr 2012 and numerous accolades for Smirnova. In 2016, Smirnova became one of the directors of the Peterburg: only by love cinema almanac, a so-called love letter in a movie form to the cultural capital of Russia. In 2018, Smirnova released The Story of a Single Purpose. The script is based on a true story that happened to 38-years old Leo Tolstoy. In 2021, Smirnova released Vertinsky — an 8-series film about prominent Russian chansonnier Alexander Vertinsky.

Works

Carpenter

The Osipovs are a very ordinary family from Ulyanovsk. Father, mother and son. They are no different from thousands and thousands of other families, except that they are happy. They love each other. The sudden illness of the son drives through them with an asphalt roller. Parents are ready for anything, they lose their home, and sometimes their human form, trying to save their child. At some point, even the mother breaks down. But not the father. The most ordinary person. A provincial carpenter.

Release Date:2022-10-27

Department:Directing

Job:Director

The Kidney

An employee of the fire department - a manipulator and a bribe-taker - is trying to get herself a kidney for a transplant. But this is not easy to do, since she lived her life in such a way that no one wants to help her.

Release Date:2022-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Creative Producer

Episode Count:18

Vote Count:23

Vertinsky

Biography of the most famous Russian chansonnier of the twentieth century. The story of the artist who left Russia in 1919 and returned to the USSR in 1943, in the midst of World War II. Vertinsky lived, sang and was popular in Constantinople, Paris, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Harbin, Shanghai and Moscow. He was loved by beautiful women, he was applauded by royalty and thieves. He was a bohemian man, light and cheerful. However, this picture is primarily about his kindness. About the ability not to judge, but to regret, to sympathize with anyone. And for this, fate gifted him with great success and late family happiness. This is a story about how a songbird, an artist, a frivolous creature can live a life that causes both envy and respect.

Release Date:2021-09-13

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:8

Vote Count:7

Pilik

Short film created specifically for Auction 2019

Release Date:2019-12-01

Department:Production

Job:Producer

The Tolstoy Defence

The shrill and tragic story about an event that involved Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. In an infantry regiment of the military based in the Tula region an offence occurs. In this regiment, the capital’s lieutenant Grigory Kolokoltsev — inspired by progressive ideas — does his service. A military tribunal and execution await the soldier charged with the offence. Kolokoltsev asks Count Tolstoy for help — and he decides to protect the innocent man. The pointed history about the complexity of choice and fidelity to one’s ideals is based on real events.

Release Date:2018-09-06

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:16

Petersburg: Selfie

Petersburg. A Selfie comprises seven novellas about the beautiful city of St. Petersburg, Russia, shot by female directors. The film tells a story of a real, living and breathing city, rather than a mythical phantasm. Each novella tells its own story about love and loneliness, luck and hope.

Release Date:2016-09-22

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:7

Dog Walking

Vera should be surrounded by men, but for some reason she lives with a dog. He walks in the park with her, has lunch and falls asleep. But she is already in her thirties, and the search for the hero of her novel has entered a critical phase. She even filled out a questionnaire on a dating site, went on a date, was with a sorcerer. So, probably, everything would have continued: friends are great, there is a dog, but love somehow does not come - if Vera had not met Andrey one day. By the way, he also had a dog.

Release Date:2016-07-05

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Half

Release Date:2015-07-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Andrei Dolinin

The subject of this documentary short is Andrei Dolinin, a 56-year-old man with autism.

Release Date:2012-12-05

Department:Production

Job:Producer

Vote Count:1

Plov

Release Date:2012-11-01

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Till Night Do Us Part

A genuine satiric comedy, based on real conversations - both amusing and sad - overheard by a journalist in one of the most expensive Moscow restaurants. Hilarious and revealing, this is a film about women who choose between affection and money, film producers that don't really know what they're filming, and weary businessmen who sometimes say screw it, down a shot and leave their mother-in-laws to pay the bill. But most of all, it's about true love that favors noisy kitchen floor over gilded fine-dining halls.

Release Date:2012-10-11

Character:restaurant visitor

Vote Count:9

Me Too

Five passengers - the Bandit, his friend Matvei, Matvei's old father, the Musician, and a young woman - race along an empty road in a big black jeep, searching for the Belfry of Happiness which, according to hearsay, lies somewhere between St. Petersburg and the town of Uglich, near a deserted nuclear power station. The Belfry takes people, but it does not take everyone. Each of the five passengers believes that he or she will be chosen.

Release Date:2012-09-07

Character:TV presenter

Vote Count:60

Kokoko

A storry about a friendship between two very different women.

Release Date:2012-06-14

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:24

Evening Urgant

Evening show Ivan Urgant. Movies, sports, new gadgets, art. What is happening in the country and in the world? Actual characters discussing the day's events and new music.

Release Date:2012-04-16

Character:Self

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:17

Two Days

A two days from the life of Pyotr Drozdov, a highly ranked official from Moscow, which he spends with young museum employee Masha.

Release Date:2011-09-08

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:21

Churchill

Boris Ermolaevich Cheryshev was called Churchill at the institute-not only for some resemblance to the British Prime Minister, but also for his extraordinary mind and intuition. These qualities helped him quickly rise through the ranks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Release Date:2009-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:1

Railway Station

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Last Hero

The portrait of the creator of the Kino group, consisting of the thoughts and memories of people who loved him, appears before the audience as a musical prophecy of a talented artist about his own life.

Release Date:1992-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:7

Lessons at the End of Spring

A young boy loses his innocence in a pre-perestroika Russian prison during the chaotic last months of the Khrushchev regime

Release Date:1990-07-18

Character:Girl

Vote Count:10

A Black Rose Is an Emblem of Sorrow, a Red Rose an Emblem of Love

The story happens mainly around "The Old Arbat Street" in the center of Moscow, where always concentrate vendors, poor young artists and musicians. The hero of this film is a boy named Mitiya,who lives with eccentric elder friend in an apartment house on "The Old Arbat". In fact, people who then appear around Mitiya are all unique, eccentric and the space of the apartment house begins to have an unrealistic character as a miniature of unstable society in the end of Soviet Union.

Release Date:1990-01-15

Department:Writing

Job:Script Editor

Vote Count:19

Aquarium Fish of This World

Aquarium Fish of This World is the story of the relationship between the captain and the boatswain, temporarily written off ashore, with a young guy who dreams of becoming a cabin boy.

Release Date:1990-01-01

Vote Count:1

The Crossroad Of Rock

Documentary film written by music critic Artemiy Troitskiy. It depicts the variety of Soviet and Baltic rock music and offers its viewer an idea that all this forbidden music is not really dangerous for society. Featuring music bands: "Круиз" (Tambov), "In Spe" (Estonia), "Новый мир" (Estonian hard-rock), "Великие Луки" (punk-rock from Tallinn). Moscow music scene represented by: "Тупые", "Нюанс", "Звуки Му". Leningrad music scene: "Джунгли", "Алиса". Also appearing: "Воплі Відоплясова" from Kiev and "Антис" from Lithuania. Not credited: Roman Neumoev with "Инструкция по выживанию" and Oleg Sudakov with "Гражданская оборона".

Release Date:1988-06-01

Character:herself

Comrade Major

San Sanych Kuleshov is a major of the FSB. He works in the wiretapping department. San Sanych has huge opportunities. He can connect to any smartphone, check any laptop, get into any desktop computer and find out everything about his "object". For many years, Sanych was part of a soulless state machine. He didn't ask unnecessary questions and did his job. So he lived to be 50 years old and suddenly realized that people are kind, weak and defenseless. They don't need surveillance, they need help. San Sanych becomes a hero, but a secret one. He appears where he is not expected, and causes good, despite the fact that no one asks him about it.

Department:Writing

Job:Creative Producer

Episode Count:1