Kira Takhirovna Kovalenko ( rus, Кира Тахировна Коваленко, born 12 December 1989) is a Russian film director and screenwriter.

Biography

After school, Kovalenko went to college and graduated in web-design. In 2010-2015 she studied at the

Kabardino-Balkarian State University Kabardino-Balkarian State University (KBSU); russian: Кабардино-Балкарский государственный университет имени Х. М. Бербекова ''Kabardino_Balkarskii gosudarstvennii universitet imeni H. ...

under

Alexander Sokurov Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov, PAR (russian: link=no, Александр Николаевич Сокуров; born 14 June 1951) is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a feature film, ''Russian Ark'' (2002), filmed in a s ...

. Directors

Kantemir Balagov Kantemir Arturovich Balagov (russian: Кантемир Артурович Балагов, kbd, Бэлагъы Артурыкъуэ Къантемыр; born 28 July 1991) is a Russian film director of Circassian descent, screenwriter and cinema ...

Alexander Zolotukhin Alexander Nikolayevich Zolotukhin ( rus, Александр Николаевич Золотухин) is a Russian film director and scenarist, student of Alexander Sokurov. Biography Alexander was born to a military pilot serving in Ukraine, t ...

and Vladimir Bitokov were her fellow students. During studies, Kovalenko directed several short movies. After graduation, Kovalenko lived in

Abkhazia Abkhazia, ka, აფხაზეთი, tr, , xmf, აბჟუა, abzhua, or ( or ), officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, recognised by most countries as part of Georgia, which vi ...

, then in

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. Her feature-length debut was based on

Fazil Iskander Fazil Abdulovich Iskander (russian: Фази́ль Абду́лович Исканде́р; ab, Фазиль Абдул-иԥа Искандер; 6 March 1929 – 31 July 2016) was a Soviet and Russian"There's no doubt I'm a Russian writer who pr ...

's novel of the same name and was released in 2016. The movie was included in the competition program of the

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, or PÖFF ( et, Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival), is an annual film festival held since 1997 in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. PÖFF is the only festival in Northern Europe or the Baltic region with a FIA ...

and was awarded at the XV International Debut Film Festival ‘Fire Spirit’ in

Khanty-Mansiysk Khanty-Mansiysk ( rus, Ха́нты-Манси́йск, Khánty-Mansíysk, lit. ''Khanty-Mansi Town''; Khanty language, Khanty: , ''Jomvoćś''; Mansi language, Mansi: , ''Abga'') is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the admini ...

. Kovalenko's second movie '' Unclenching the Fists'' was filmed in

North Ossetia North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

in only 25 days. The movie took the main prize at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

in 2021 and received a distribution offer by

Mubi Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; The Auteurs before 2010) is a global curated film streaming platform, production company and film distributor. Mubi produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusivel ...

streaming service. Kovalenko and fellow dissident filmmaker

were chosen as Telluride Film Festival guest directors in September 2022. In November 2022, Kovalenko announced her new project under a working title 'Children of hope'. The script is co-authored with Russian writer Marina Stepnova, Alexander Rodnyanskiy's studio AR Content will produce the project.

References

1989 births Living people People from Nalchik Russian activists against the Russian invasion of Ukraine Russian cinematographers Russian women film directors Russian screenwriters {{Russia-film-director-stub