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Iosif Kheifits
Iosif Kheifits
Иосиф Хейфиц
Born	17 December [O.S. 4 December] 1905; Minsk, Russian Empire (present-day Belarus)
Died	24 April 1995 (aged 89); Saint Petersburg, Russia
Occupations	Film director; Screenwriter;
Years active	1928–1989

Iosif Yefimovich Kheifits^[a] (17 December [O.S. 4 December] 1905 – 24 April 1995) was a Soviet film director, winner of two Stalin Prizes (1941, 1946), People's Artist of USSR (1964), Hero of Socialist Labor (1975). Member of the Communist Party of Soviet Union since 1945.^[1]

Life and career

Kheifets was born 17 December 1905 in Minsk. In 1927 he graduated from the Leningrad Technical-Screen Art (present-day Saint Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television). In 1928, he graduated from the cinema faculty of Institute of History of Art [ru]. In 1928, Iosif Kheifets came to work at the film studio Sovkino (present-day Lenfilm Studio). In film, he first made his debut as a screenwriter, with Aleksandr Ivanov [ru] and Aleksandr Zarkhi he created the scripts for films The Moon Is to the Left [ru] and Transport of Fire [ru].

Then, Iosif Kheifits became a director, while from 1928 to 1950 he worked with Aleksandr Zarkhi, headed the 1st Komsomol stage brigade of Sovkino, releasing films on the Soviet youth: Wind in the Face (1930), Noon (1931), and the comedy Hectic Days (1935). Baltic Deputy (1937) featured how Russian scientist Professor Polezhayev (based on the life of Kliment Timiryazev, starring Nikolay Konstantinovich Cherkasov) joined the October Revolution. A significant performance was in Member of the Government (1939), a film centered on the image of a Russian peasant woman (starring Vera Maretskaya), who took the difficult path from a farmhand to a deputy of the Supreme Soviet. Together with Zarkhi, Kheifits set such films as His Name Is Sukhe-Bator (1942), The Last Hill (1944), and the 1945 documentary The Defeat of Japan. In the 1950s, Kheifits directed such films as A Big Family, Rumyantsev Case, and My Beloved. He later turned towards the Russian classics, filming works of Anton Chekhov, Ivan Turgenev, and Aleksandr Kuprin: Lady with the Dog, The Bad Good Man, Asya, and Shurotchka [ru].

In 1970, his film Hail, Mary! was entered in the 7th Moscow International Film Festival.^[2] In 1975 he was a member of the jury at the 9th Moscow International Film Festival.^[3]

Deep exposition of the inner nature of characters and a refined understanding of cinematic language can be listed as distinctive features of his work.

His films hosted renowned performances by many actors, such as Iya Savvina, Alexei Batalov, Anatoly Papanov, Oleg Dal, Vladimir Vysotsky, Lyudmila Maksakova, Ada Rogovtseva, Elena Koreneva, Stanislav Sadalskiy.

Kheifits's was honored with various film awards, including at the Cannes Film Festival. Kheifits's last work was the dramatic film Vagrant Bus, which was released in 1989.

Iosif Kheifits died on 24 April 1995. He was buried at the cemetery in Komarovo.

Filmography

Directing work

Awards and prizes

Stalin Prize, second class (1941); for the film "Baltic Deputy" (1936)
Stalin Prize of the first degree (1946); for the documentary "The defeat of Japan" (1945)
People's Artist of the USSR (1964)
Hero of Socialist Labour (1975)

Notes

^
- Russian: Иосиф Ефимович Хейфиц, romanized: Iosif Yefimovich Kheyfits
- Belarusian: Іосіф Яфімавіч Хейфіц, romanized: Iosif Yafimavich Khyeyfits
- Sometimes romanized as Josef Heifitz, Josif Heifits (Oxford Companion to Film, 1976, p. 326)

References

^ Peter Rollberg (2009). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 339–342. ISBN 978-0-8108-6072-8.
^ "7th Moscow International Film Festival (1971)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 3 April 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
^ "9th Moscow International Film Festival (1975)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
^ ^a ^b "Heifitz, Iosif". Film Reference. Retrieved 17 October 2010.