16 Facts About Elem Klimov

Elem Germanovich Klimov was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker.

Elem Klimov studied at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematograph, and was married to film director Larisa Shepitko.

Elem Klimov's work includes black comedies, children's movies, and period dramas.

Elem Klimov was born in Stalingrad into a Russian family, to German Stepanovich Klimov, an investigator who worked at the Central Control Commission of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and Kaleria Georgievna Klimova.

Elem Klimov's parents were staunch communists and his first name was an acronym derived from the names of Engels, Lenin and Marx.

Elem Klimov's first feature film, 1964's Welcome, or No Trespassing was a satire on Soviet bureaucracy in the guise of a children's summer camp adventure story.

Elem Klimov's second film, Adventures of a Dentist, was a dark comedy about a dentist who is derided by his colleagues for his natural talent of painlessly pulling out teeth.

In 1976, Elem Klimov finished a film begun by his teacher Mikhail Romm before the latter's death called And Still I Believe.

In 1986, fresh from the success of Come and See, and with the changes brought by perestroika in the air, Elem Klimov was chosen by his colleagues to be the First Secretary of the Filmmakers' Union following the V Congress of the Soviet Filmmakers.

Elem Klimov's leadership saw the belated release of many of the previously banned films and the reinstatement of several directors who had fallen out of political favor.

Elem Klimov was still frustrated by the obstacles that still remained in his way and gave up his post in 1988 to Andrei Smirnov, saying that he wanted to make films again.

Elem Klimov's plans included an adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Demons, and a film about Joseph Stalin.

In 1957, Elem Klimov graduated from the Higher Institute of Aviation in Moscow.

Elem Klimov considered a career in journalism before settling on cinema.

Elem Klimov enrolled at the state film school, the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, where he studied under acclaimed director Efim Dzigan.

Elem Klimov died on 26 October 2003 from brain hypoxia, after six weeks in a coma.