Roman Romanovich Kachanov

Roman Romanovich Kachanov
(Роман Романович Качанов)
Born Roman R. Kachanov
17 January 1967
Moscow, Soviet Union
Other names Roman Kachnov, Jr.; Roman Kachanov (II); Roman Kachanov ML.
Occupation Actor
Film director
Screenwriter
Years active 1982–present
Spouse(s) Angelina Chernova (2007–present)

Roman Romanovich Kachanov (Russian: Рома́н Рома́нович Кача́нов; born 17 January 1967, in Moscow) is a film director, screenwriter and actor.

Biography

Roman Kachanov was born on the 17th of January 1967 in Moscow, in USSR to a Jewish family.

In 1982-1984 Roman studied in the school of working youth number 127, he attended high director's courses as a non-decree student at the same time. He also started working at the age of 15 as an assistant of a sci-fi writer Kir Bulychov. Roman entered the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) on the faculty of script writing in 1984.

Kachanov debuted as a film director with the film Don't ask me about a thing in 1991 at the age of 24. The shooting base was located in Riga (Latvia). This film was one of the latest made in USSR. Its premiere took place in 1995 only because of the economical difficulties in the country.

In 1993 the film Freak was released. Its premiere took place during the Kinotavr festival within the competitive programme. Roman received the film scenery as a help to a young director from Menahem Golan which had been rest after the shooting his own film Mad Dog Coll in Moscow.

Kachanov was shooting advertising and music clips in 1993-1997.

His low-cost film Maximilian was released 1998.

In two years Roman made his film Demobbed which became successful either among the audience or critics and at the Russian and foreign festivals. Many of the phrases from the film became aphorisms and entered the spoken language. This film became extremely popular.

Freestyle adaptation of Fedor Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot called Dawn House was released in 2001 by Kachanov. This film was included in competitive and non-competitive projections at the festivals. Dawn House succeeded as much as the Demobbed did. The text of the dialogues was taken to quotations as well. The film was included in the program of Modern cinema and Modern Russian cinema courses of some of the Russian and foreign cinema schools. Dawn house was named the best Russian film of 2001 according to the professional magazine Cinema process.

In a year Roman started the realization of a huge project Arie about the semicentennial story of love between a Jewish man and a Jewish woman flashed at the time of the Holocaust when both of them had been teenagers. The film production was being conducted in Lithuania and Israel and took more than two years, it was finished in 2004.

Roman worked as a director of the eight episode TV-series Stealing Tarantino in 2005. The huge part of the shooting process was conducted in Los Angeles.

In 2006-2007 Kachanov shot film Tumbler. The genre of the film is a sports comedy about the boxing. Some of the roles were being played not by the professional actors, but by the sportsmen boxers. It brought to the film more authentity.

Kachanov started shooting his film Gena Concrete in 2008. The private investor claimed himself temporary insolvent in the full play in 2009. The project was frozen. It was later obvious, that the investor could not finance the project any more. The Federal fund of the national cinematography support decided to maintain the film in 2012. Kachanov has finished the film production till the November, 2013. The premier of Gena Concrete is planned in 2014.

Roman Kachanov's films contain the individual author's style, special sense of humor and unconventional point of view. They can be classified as arthouse, but it doesn't prevent them from being successful among the mass audience. Roman Kachanov is admitted to be an iconic film director.

At this time the documentary trylogy Century Soldiers is being produced. It consists of the films: Cantonists. Soldiers of The Tsar, Joseph Trumpeldor. The Roaring Lion, Abba Kovner. The Avenger.

Also Roman Kachanov is successfully working as a script writer.

Family

His father was Roman A. Kachanov, a famous Russian animator. His mother Gara Kachanova was an engineer-economist. Kachanov's parents died in 1993, when Roman was 26 years old. Roman Kachanov married an actress Anna Buklovskaya in 1998, they have two daughters Polina and Alexandra, but the marriage broke up. Roman later married an actress and a model Angelina Chernova, they have two daughters Gara and Dina.

Filmography

Film Director

  1. Don't Ask Me About A Thing (1991)
  2. Freak (1993)
  3. Maximilian (1998)
  4. Demobbed (2000)
  5. Down House (2001)
  6. Arie (2003)
  7. Stealing Tarantino (2005)
  8. Tumbler (2007)
  9. Gena Concrete (2014)
  10. Cantonists. Soldiers of The Tsar (2014)[1]
  11. Joseph Trumpeldor. The Roaring Lion (2014)[2]
  12. Abba Kovner. The Avenger (2015)

Screenwriter

  1. The Miracles of Technology (1986)
  2. Karpusha (1988)
  3. Nonsense. The story about nothing (1988)
  4. Vaniusha The Newcomer (1990)
  5. Vaniusha and The Space Pirate (1991)
  6. Don't ask me about a thing (1991)
  7. Glasha and Kikimora (1992)
  8. Vaniusha and The Giant (1993)
  9. Demobbed (2000)
  10. Down House (2001)
  11. Arie (2003)
  12. Tumbler (2007)
  13. Gena Concrete (2014)
  14. Cantonists. Soldiers of The Tsar (2014)
  15. Ding ding, don't forget the wedding ring (2014)
  16. Joseph Trumpeldor. The Roaring Lion (2014)
  17. Abba Kovner. The Avenger (2015)
  18. Lords of the dreams (2015)

Actor

  1. The Mystery of the Third Planet (1981) — Ushan on the Street (voice actor)
  2. The Destroyer of the Waves (1989) — The Passer
  3. Don't ask Me about the Thing (1991) — The Patient in the Queue
  4. Demobbed (2000) — The Quartermaster Lieberman
  5. Gena Concrete (2014) — The Killer

Selected Awards

  • 2000 — DemobbedGolden Arie (National Award of Film-critics and the Film-press) "for the Best filmscript"
  • 2000 — DemobbedKinotavr – Prize of the Guild of Russian Film Scholars and Film Critics "White Elephant"
  • 2001 — Down HouseKinotavr – Special Jury Prize "for the New cinema language search";
  • 2001 — Down House — Special Jury Prize "for the unprecendented adaptation of the novel of Fedor Dostoevsky Idiot" at the Russian festival in Gatchina;
  • 2004 — Arie — Prize "for the Best film" at the Russian festival Amursk autumn in Blagoveshensk
  • 2013 — The Scroll of Honor of Russian Ministry of Culture "for the substantial contribution in the national cinematography development";
  • 2013 — Demobbed — Film was included in the list of "100 main films of 1992-2013" according to the one of the main Russian cultural magazines Afisha.

International

  • 2000 — DemobbedFIPRESCI Prize: "for its humour and for the ironic look on Russian society which allows to overcome tragedies of everyday life and might open doors to the new cinema".

References

External links