Liya Akhedzhakova

Liya Akhedzhakova
Born (1938-07-09) July 9, 1938
Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, USSR

Liya Medzhidovna Akhedzhakova (Russian: Лия Меджидовна Ахеджакова, Ukrainian: Лія Меджидівна Ахеджакова; born 9 July 1938) is a Soviet and Russian actress who is famous both for theater and cinema. She received the title of People's Artist of Russia and other honours.

Biography

Akhedzhakova was born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. She grew up in a theatrical family in Maykop. Her Father Majid Salehovich Ahedzhakov was the principal director and her mother an actress at the Adyghe Drama Theater. According to the family legends she belongs to a princely Circassian family of Akhedzhakovs.[1]

In 1956 she entered the Moscow Institute of Nonferrous Metals and Gold, where she studied for eighteen months. She first appeared on stage in 1961 in Moscow.

In 1977 she joined the Sovremennik Theatre. One of the first great works - the play "Flat Columbine" directed by Roman Viktyuk, where she played four main roles. Her first film was Ishchu cheloveka (Looking for a Man) (1973) was praised at the international film festivals in Locarno and Varna.[2] She became widely famous due to Eldar Ryazanov’s films, among them the roles of Verochka in Office Romance (1977), Fima in Nebesa obetovannye (Promised Heaven) (1991), Tania in The Irony of Fate (1975), and others.

Awards

Filmography (partial)

Political position

Akhedzhakova is a critic of the contemporary Russian politics and Vladimir Putin in particular. Together with Eldar Ryazanov, Yuri Shevchuk, Andrey Konchalovsky and other persons she protested against Russian policy towards Ukraine.[4] Following the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, she publicly read a poem of Andrey Orlov "Requiem for MH17".[4] In 2013, Akhedzhakova received a prize from the Moscow Helsinki Group for "the protection of human rights by means of culture and arts".[4]

Eldar Ryazanov characterized Akhedzhakova as follows: "She sympathizes with the weak and despises the cruel. In that her artistic credo coincides with the stance of the great Chaplin".[3]

References

External links

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