  grigori naumovich chukhrai (, ; 23 may 1921 &ndash; 29 october 2001) was a prominent soviet film director and screenwriter of jewish (on his father's side) and ukrainian (on his mother's side) origin. he is the father of director pavel chukhrai. ==career== he was born in melitopol in the zaporizhia oblast of ukraine. a decorated veteran of world war ii, chukhrai's wartime experiences profoundly affected him and the majority of his films were connected with events of the war. drafted in 1939, he served in the 229th separate communications battalion of the 134th infantry division. from 1943 on, he served in airborne troops and took part in operation "dnipro troopers". at war's end, he studied filmmaking at the soviet state film school and then developed his craft as a director's assistant at the kiev film studio. by the mid-1950s, he began writing and directing his own films, gaining cinematic recognition outside the soviet union at the 1957 cannes film festival with his film sorok pervyj (the forty-first). in 1959, chukhrai co-wrote and directed his greatest work, ballad of a soldier. a story of love and the tragedy of war made without the usual soviet propaganda, the film received great acclaim at home, earning the prestigious lenin prize. it was heralded internationally for both its story and cinematic technique and at cannes in 1960 the film was awarded a special jury prize for "high humanism and outstanding quality." ballad of a soldier overcame the cold war barrier and premiered in the united states in 1960 at the san francisco international film festival in san francisco, california. the film won the festival's golden gate award, for best picture and for best director for grigori chukhrai. playing worldwide, the following year, it earned the bafta award for best film. grigori chukhrai and script co-writer valentin yezhov were also nominated for an academy award for writing original screenplay. chukhrai's next film, released in 1961, was titled chistoye nebo (clear skies) and told the story of a soviet pilot w
1921_births 2001_deaths Burials_at_Vagankovo_Cemetery Gerasimov_Institute_of_Cinematography_alumni Gerasimov_Institute_of_Cinematography_faculty High_Courses_for_Scriptwriters_and_Film_Directors_faculty Lenin_Prize_winners People\'s_Artists_of_the_USSR People_from_Melitopol Russian_people_of_Ukrainian_descent Soviet_film_directors Soviet_people_of_Ukrainian_descent Soviet_screenwriters Ukrainian_Jews Ukrainian_film_directors Ukrainian_screenwriters