Avdotya (Dunya) Smirnova is the most colorful figure of Russian television. She was remembered by many on the program School of Slander, which was broadcast together with Tatyana Tolstoy on the NTV channel. However, TV is only a small part of the life of this interesting woman. Much more important for her is cinema. In it, she proved herself to be a talented screenwriter and director.
Biography
Avdotya Smirnova was born in a creative family. Her father Andrei Smirnov is a film actor and director (his most famous films are Belorussky Train Station and Once Upon a Time There Was a Woman). Mother is a theater and film actress Natalya Rudnaya. The paternal grandfather of Avdotya Smirnova, Sergei Smirnov, is a Soviet prose writer, historian, and screenwriter. The maternal grandfather is Vladimir Rudny, a journalist and writer.
Since childhood, Avdotya was interested in two things: literature and cinema. When it came time to get a professional education, she wanted to combine these two areas into a single whole and become a screenwriter. However, the family opposed this. As a compromise, the philological faculty of Moscow State University was chosen. Having learned for some time there, she transferred to the theater department of GITIS. As a result, she was expelled from the 3rd year, and higher education remained incomplete.
However, this did not prevent Avdotya Smirnova from fully realizing her creative potential. From the age of 18 she worked as an editor at the Mosfilm film studio. In 1989 she left the institute and moved to St. Petersburg. At the beginning of her life in St. Petersburg, she was the art manager of the "Cabaret" group "Dumb" and was published in the magazine "Urlayt". She was an active participant in the St. Petersburg underground. She collaborated with various art associations, publishers, and also worked on television. From the beginning of the 90s, Avdotya’s “romance” begins with the movie, which continues to this day. From 2002 to 2014 she was the co-host of the School of Slander, which brought her all-Russian fame.
The director is also known as a philanthropist - in 2012, she established the Sunrise Foundation, which deals with the problems of people with autism. The symbol of the fund is a blue bear.
Filmography
The first three scenic works Avdotya Smirnova made in collaboration with the director Alexei Uchitel. These are two documentaries “The Last Hero” (1992) about Victor Tsoi and “Butterfly” (1993) about theatrical director Roman Viktyuk. Then came the feature film "Mania Giselle" (1995) about the ballerina Olga Spesivtseva.
Among the subsequent works of Duni Smirnova as a screenwriter and director, the following can be especially distinguished:
- The Diary of His Wife (2000). About the writer Bunin and his relationship with two beloved women. The screenwriter father Andrei Smirnov starred in the title role. The idea of the film largely arose due to its portrait resemblance to Bunin.
- "Communication" (2006). Her first directorial work.
- "Fathers and Sons" (2008). Mini-series based on the novel by Turgenev.
- "Two days" (2011). A romantic film about a suddenly flashed feeling between a museum employee and a businessman.
- "The Story of a Purpose" (2018). The film is about a real episode from the life of Leo Tolstoy, which occurred during his service in the army. About the lack of rights of "little" people, about justice and indifference.
Other works: "8 ½ $" (1999), "Walk" (2003), "Communication" (2006), "Gloss" (2007), "May 9. Personal attitude" (short story "Station", 2008), " Churchill "(film 10" Optical illusion ", 2010), " Plov "(2012), " Kokoko "(2012), " Petersburg. Only for love "(short story" Walk the Dogs ", 2016).
