May 23: the birthday of Grigory Chukhrai, a director who fought the system and won
Grigory Chukhrai was born on May 23, 1921, in Melitopol, the son of a Red Army soldier. He served in the Great Patriotic War, found his calling in the ruins of Stalingrad, and became one of the most significant Soviet directors—the creator of films that censors could neither ban nor tolerate.
War and calling
During the war, Chukhrai served as a radio operator and was wounded several times. He was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class. It was in Stalingrad, in a destroyed building, that he found a book on film theory by Lev Kuleshov and decided to become a director.
Debut and Cannes
In 1952, Chukhrai joined the Kyiv Film Studio. From 1955, he became a director at Mosfilm. He made his debut with the Civil War film "The Forty-First." The screenwriter, disagreeing with the director's interpretation, called the film "White Guard concoction." But Khrushchev happened to see it and said, "Send it to Cannes." The film won a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
"Ballad of a Soldier" - and a party card
In 1959, "Ballad of a Soldier" was released, winning over 100 prestigious international awards and being nominated for an Oscar. Chukhrai received the Lenin Prize in his home country, but was expelled from the party: the artistic council disapproved of the scene in which the protagonist's wife cheats on him at the front. His party membership was later reinstated.
Anti-Stalinist cinema
In 1961, Chukhrai made "Clear Sky," an anti-war and anti-Stalin film about the distrust of former prisoners of war who returned to the USSR. The theme, originally absent from Daniil Khrabrovitsky's script, was discovered during the film's development.
In 1965, another anti-Stalin film, "Once Upon a Time Lived an Old Man and an Old Woman," was released, but it was "emasculated at Goskino." They removed "only" a few important shots—but that was enough to ruin the film.
The shame of having to compromise still gnaws at me to this day.
Letters and prohibitions
In 1966, Chukhrai signed the "Letter of Thirteen" against Stalin's rehabilitation. He was a member of the Soviet Peace Committee. These views hindered his professional career. The script for "People" was deemed pacifist, "Stalingrad" was banned from production, and "Memory" was removed from the screen. In 1977, the same fate befell "Quagmire," a film about a woman who hid her son from the war in her attic. Soviet military brass viewed the plot as "discrediting" and labeled the film "vicious."
I don’t want to be taken for a victim of the System, and I wasn’t a victim – I was in a constant struggle with it, and whoever fights not only inflicts blows, but also receives them.
Experimental studio
To stay in the industry but avoid playing by Goskino's rules, Chukhrai, together with Vladimir Pozner Sr., developed a self-financing system for film production. In 1965, he became artistic director of the Experimental Creative Film Studio at Mosfilm, which operated on a self-sustaining basis. Over 10 years, the studio produced 38 films, including "Afonya," "The Twelve Chairs," "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession," "It Can't Be!", "White Sun of the Desert," "Sannikov Land," and "Slave of Love." The studio closed in 1976.
The work was incredibly difficult. No one put a spoke in our wheels, but they skillfully sprinkled sand into the axle boxes so that the wheels wouldn't turn.
In the 1990s, together with German director Rolf Schübel, Chukhrai produced the documentary "Mortal Enemies," featuring interviews with participants in the Battle of Stalingrad. Grigory Chukhrai died in 2001 in Moscow at the age of 80, after several heart attacks and a serious illness.
