Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Mikhalkov (born 1945) is a Russian director, screenwriter, and actor, one of the most prominent figures of Soviet and post-Soviet cinema. Born into a celebrated artistic family, he trained at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography and acted in films by his brother Andrei Konchalovsky before turning to direction in the 1970s. His features draw on Chekhov, Russian history, and the country's tangled twentieth-century inheritance, alternating between intimate chamber dramas and large-scale epics. His acclaimed films include A Slave of Love, An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano, Oblomov, Burnt by the Sun, and 12.