Fyodor Khitruk

Known for DirectingBorn 1917-05-01Died 2012-12-03Tver, Russian Empire

Fyodor Savelyevich Khitruk (Russian: Фёдор Савельевич Хитрук; 1 May 1917 – 3 December 2012; Tver) was a Russian (and Soviet) animator and animation director. Khitruk was born in Tver (Russian Empire), into a Jewish family. He came to Moscow to study graphic design at the OGIS College for Applied Arts. He graduated in 1936 and started to work with "Soyuzmultfilm" in 1938 as an animator. From 1962 onwards, he worked as a director. His first film "Story of One Crime" was an immense success. Today, this film is seen as the beginning of a renaissance of Soviet animation after a two-decade-long life in the shadows of Socialist realism. Diverging from the “naturalistic” Disney-like canons that were reigning in the 1950-60s in Soviet animated cartoons, he created his own style, which was laconic yet multi-level, non-trivial and vivid. He is the director of outstanding animated short films including such classics as his social satire of bureaucrats, "Man in the Frame" (1966); the philosophic parable, "Island" (1973) about the loneliness of a man in modern society; the biographical film "A Young Man Named Engels – A Portrait in Letters" (1970), based on drawings and letters of young Engels; the parody "Film, Film, Film" (1968); and the anti-war film, "Lion and Bull" (1984). In April 1993, Khitruk and three other leading animators (Yuri Norstein, Andrei Khrzhanovsky, and Eduard Nazarov) founded SHAR Studio, an animation school and studio in Russia. The Russian Cinema Committee is among the share-holders in the studio. In 2008, he released a two-volume book titled "Profession of Animation". He is the grandfather of violin virtuoso Anastasia Khitruk. Khitruk lived in Moscow, where he died in 2012, aged 95.Read more

Movies & web series

Lafertovskaya Makovnitsa

A Young Man Named Engels – A Portrait in Letters

At Exactly Three Fifteen ...

What Kind of Bird Is This?

Magia Russica

The Magic Treasure

Murzilka on the Satellite

Attraction

The Magic Carpet

A Sober Sparrow

Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories from My Childhood

The Tale of the Fisherman and the Goldfish

Winnie-the-Pooh

Film, Film, Film

The Snowman-Postman

Petia and Little Red Riding Hood

A Naughty Kitten

Winnie-the-Pooh and a Busy Day

Dunno on the Moon

Winnie-the-Pooh Goes Visiting

Big Troubles

Winnie-the-Pooh

Neighbours

The Enchanted Boy

The Cow

Dog and Cat

Once Upon a Time

A Brave Hare

It Was I Who Drew the Little Man

The Cat in the Cap

I Give You a Star

Magic Store

Kashtanka

One Day Before Our Era

An Unusual Match

When Christmas Trees Light Up

Different Wheels

The Tale of Chapayev

Again, Deuce

Old Friends

Girl in the Jungle

Adventures of Murzilka

A Dangerous Prank

The Crow and the Fox, the Cuckoo and the Rooster

Brave Pak

Sarmiko

Forest Travellers

The High Hill