Yuli Solomonovich Gusman (russian: Юлий Соломонович Гусман) (born 8 August 1943,

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world an ...

) is a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

n and

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

i film director and actor. He is the founder and CEO of the prestigious Nika Award.

Life and career

Yuli Gusman was born in

, Azerbaijan to military physician Solomon Gusman and professor Lola Barsuk, who later became a translator and professor at the Azerbaijan University of Languages. His brother Mikhail is the vice-president of the

Information Telegraph Agency of Russia The Russian News Agency TASS (russian: Информацио́нное аге́нтство Росси́и ТАСС, translit=Informatsionnoye agentstvo Rossii, or Information agency of Russia), abbreviated TASS (russian: ТАСС, label=none) ...

. In 1966 Yuli Gusman graduated from the Azerbaijan Medical University, majoring in therapeutics, and in 1970 earned a master's degree in Psychology and Psychiatry. He wrote a research paper to defend a thesis for another medical degree, but chose not to do so after being admitted to the Higher Film Directing Courses at Goskino. Upon graduating in 1976 he worked at ''

Azerbaijanfilm Azerbaijanfilm ( az, Azərbaycanfilm) is an Azerbaijani state film production company. It is located in the capital Baku. History "Azerbaijanfilm" was established in 1920 as a photo-cinema department at the Azerbaijan SSR People's Commissariat, ...

'' where he created and directed stage performances and was the director of the satirical

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...

''Mozalan''. In the 1970s and the 1980s he worked as manager and director of the

Azerbaijan State Theatre of Musical Comedy Azerbaijan State Theatre of Musical Comedy ( az, Azərbaycan Dövlət Musiqili Komediya Teatrı) is one of the leading musical theatres of Azerbaijan. History The premiere of ''Husband and wife'', a musical comedy written by Uzeyir Hajibeyov in 1 ...

and the Song Theatre. He has directed seven films, including outside the Soviet Union (in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

).Yuli Gusman
. ''Gloria Mundi'' In 1965–1972 he was head of Baku's

KVN ''KVN'' (russian: КВН, an abbreviation of , ''Klub Vesyólykh i Nakhódchivykh'' or ''Ka-Ve-En'', "Club of the Funny and Inventive") is a Russian (and formerly Soviet) humour TV show and an international competition where teams (usually comp ...

team. He introduced the uniform practice for all KVN teams. In 1993 he was elected to the

State Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper hous ...

of the first convocation (1993–1995). In 1988–2002 Gusman was chairman of the Cinematography Centre (''Dom Kino'') in

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 ...

. In 1996–2000 he hosted the primetime talk-show ''Tema'' and the weekly talk-show ''Vecher s Yuliem Gusmanom'' ("An Evening with Yuli Gusman") on

Channel One (Russia) Channel One ( rus, Первый канал, r=Pervyy kanal, p=ˈpʲervɨj kɐˈnal, t=First Channel) is a Russian state-controlled television channel. It is the first television channel to broadcast in the Russian Federation. Its headquarters ...

. In 1996 he founded and became one of the CEOs of the Russian Jewish Congress. In 2004 he was awarded with the

Order of Friendship The Order of Friendship (russian: Орден Дружбы, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds ...

. He is married to Valida Gusman, a

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in N ...

teacher and lecturer in the Slavic Languages Department at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll in 1789 as Georgetown College, the university has grown to comprise eleven undergraduate and graduate ...

.Georgetown University Undergraduate Bulletin - 2003-2004
They have a daughter named Lola and a grandson named Maximilian.

Notable filmography

As a director

* ''On One Fine Day'' (''В один прекрасный день'', Azerbaijanfilm, 1977) * ''Cottage for a Family'' (''Дачный домик для одной семьи'', Azerbaijanfilm, 1978) * ''Don't Be Afraid, I Am Here For You'' (''Не бойся, я с тобой'', Azerbaijanfilm, 1981) * ''Ice Floe In The Warm Sea'' (''Льдина в тёплом море'', 1986) * ''The Soviet Period Park'' (''Парк советского периода'', Slovo, 2006) * ''Don't Be Afraid, I Am Here For You! 1919'' (''Не бойся, я с тобой! 1919'', Azerbaijanfilm, WaiT Media, 2011)

As an actor

*''Nastya'' (

Mosfilm Mosfilm (russian: Мосфильм, ''Mosfil’m'' ) is a film studio which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's film monopoly, its output inclu ...

, 1993), as TV-host *''The Soviet Period Park'' (Slovo, 2006), as himself

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gusman, Yuli Russian male actors Russian film directors Soviet film directors Azerbaijani film directors 1943 births Living people Film people from Baku Azerbaijani Jews First convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation) Echo of Moscow radio presenters High Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors alumni Academicians of the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences "Nika" Russian actor-politicians Honored Art Workers of the Azerbaijan SSR