Larisa Shepitko
Larisa Shepitko (1938–1979) was a Soviet director regarded as one of the most important figures of late Soviet cinema, despite her tiny filmography — she died in a car accident at forty. Trained at VGIK in Moscow under Alexander Dovzhenko, she carried his lyrical, landscape-attuned sensibility into a series of features that engaged with religion, gender, and the Second World War. Her feature The Ascent won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 1977. Her acclaimed films include Heat, Wings, You and Me, and The Ascent.