Rustam Ibragimbekov
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Rustam Mammad oglu Ibragimbekov, also spelled Ibrahimbeyov (Azeri: Rüstəm İbrahimbəyov; Russian: Рустам Ибрагимбеков) (born February 5, 1939, Baku) is Azerbaijani screenwriter, dramatist and producer, well known beyond his home Azerbaijan and CIS.
Rustam Ibragimbekov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan to Mammad Ibrahimbeyov and Fatima Meshadibeyova. He is the younger brother of Magsud Ibrahimbeyov, an Azerbaijani writer and politician. Rustam Ibragimbekov graduated from Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute, then studied script writing and film directing at VGIK in Moscow. His writing credits include more than 40 film and television scripts, numerous plays and pieces of prose, and nearly all of his scripts were eventually made into full feature or TV films. Among his most noteworthy film work is White Sun of the Desert (1970, Белое солнце пустыни), Interrogation (1979, Допрос), Guard Me, My Talisman (1986, Храни меня, мой талисман), Close to Eden (Урга, Территория любви, 1991) Burnt by the Sun (1994, Утомлённые солнцем), The Barber of Siberia (1998, Сибирский цирюльник) and East-West (1999).
White Sun of the Desert (1969), for which he co-wrote the script with Valentin Yezhov, has become a cult film in former USSR. Russian cosmonauts consider it a good omen to watch before they prepare for a launch.
Since 1990 Ibragimbekov has been collaborating closely as scriptwriter with Nikita Mikhalkov. Urga, Territory of Love, directed by Mikhalkov and known in the U.S. as "Close to Eden," won the Golden Lion Award in the Venice Film Festival as well as the Felix Award in Berlin as Best European Film. "Close to Eden" was also nominated for American Film Academy Award (Oscar) in 1992 as Best Foreign Language Film. “Burnt by the Sun” (directed by Nikita Mikhalkov) received an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1994 and Grand Prize of the Jury at 47th Cannes International Film Festival; their latest film “Barber of Siberia” was the most expensive European production of 1997; he is the screenwriter of "East-West”, shared with Sergei Bodrov, for the French director Régis Wargnier, nominated for the "Oscar" award in 1999.
Apart from being a screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov is a well-known writer - several Collected Works were published in Russia, Azerbaijan and abroad. He also wrote over ten theatre plays that were staged in numerous theatres. Rustam Ibragimbekov is also credited with several full feature films which he directed.
Ibragimbekov is currently the Chairman of the Confederation of Filmmakers' Unions (CFU), which represents filmmakers from all of the former Soviet republics, secretary of the Russian Filmmakers' Union, and member of European Film Academy and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
