Fyodor Khitruk

Directing·May 1, 1917·Tver, Russian Empire

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Fyodor Savelyevich Khitruk (Russian: Фёдор Савельевич Хитрук; 1 May 1917 – 3 December 2012; Tver) was a Russian (and Soviet) animator and animation director. Khitruk was born in Tver (Russian Empire), into a Jewish family. He came to Moscow to study graphic design at the OGIS College for Applied Arts. He graduated in 1936 and started to work with "Soyuzmultfilm" in 1938 as an animator. From 1962 onwards, he worked as a director. His first film "Story of One Crime" was an immense success. Today, this film is seen as the beginning of a renaissance of Soviet animation after a two-decade-long life in the shadows of Socialist realism. Diverging from the “naturalistic” Disney-like canons that were reigning in the 1950-60s in Soviet animated cartoons, he created his own style, which was laconic yet multi-level, non-trivial and vivid. He is the director of outstanding animated short films including such classics as his social satire of bureaucrats, "Man in the Frame" (1966); the philosophic parable, "Island" (1973) about the loneliness of a man in modern society; the biographical film "A Young Man Named Engels – A Portrait in Letters" (1970), based on drawings and letters of young Engels; the parody "Film, Film, Film" (1968); and the anti-war film, "Lion and Bull" (1984). In April 1993, Khitruk and three other leading animators (Yuri Norstein, Andrei Khrzhanovsky, and Eduard Nazarov) founded SHAR Studio, an animation school and studio in Russia. The Russian Cinema Committee is among the share-holders in the studio. In 2008, he released a two-volume book titled "Profession of Animation". He is the grandfather of violin virtuoso Anastasia Khitruk. Khitruk lived in Moscow, where he died in 2012, aged 95.

Film	Credit
Masters of Russian Animation - Volume 32000 · Director	Director
Masters of Russian Animation - Volume 22000 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
Masters of Russian Animation - Volume 12000 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
Lion and Bull1984 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Olympians1982 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
One Day Before Our Era1977 · Director, Screenplay, Writer	Director, Screenplay, Writer
Ikar and Sages1976 · Screenplay, Director	Screenplay, Director
I Give You a Star1974 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Island1973 · Screenplay, Director	Screenplay, Director
Balance of Fear1973 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Winnie-the-Pooh and a Busy Day1972 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Winnie-the-Pooh Goes Visiting1971 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
A Young Man Named Engels – A Portrait in Letters1970 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Winnie-the-Pooh1969 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Film, Film, Film1968 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Othello-671967 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
Man in the Frame1966 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Boniface's Holiday1965 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Little Stomper1964 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Story of One Crime1963 · Director	Director