Vitaly Vsevolodovich Mansky (; born 2 December 1963 in

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

) is a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and Ukrainian

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

. He is the founder of a festival of documentary movies,

ArtDocFest Artdocfest is an international festival of original documentary films. Artdocfest presents the brightest non-format documentaries of all genres. It was established in 2007 by the Directorate of the Russian national non-fiction films award "Lavrov ...

and has resided in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

since 2014.

Artdocfest Artdocfest is an international festival of original documentary films. Artdocfest presents the brightest non-format documentaries of all genres. It was established in 2007 by the Directorate of the Russian national non-fiction films award "Lavrov ...

has since collaborated with the

Riga International Film Festival This is a list of Wikipedia articles about film festivals in Europe. Albania Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Cyprus Denmark Estonia Finland France Ge ...

Political Stances

Berlin Rally by Demokrati-JA in support of Ukraine asv2023-02 img04

In March 2014, Mansky signed an open letter in solidarity with Ukrainian filmmakers following the Russian annexation of Crimea. In 2018, he supported the

European Film Academy The European Film Academy is a group of European film director, filmmakers who come together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988. Every year, the European Film Academy honors films an ...

's appeal in defense of Ukrainian filmmaker

Oleg Sentsov Oleh Hennadiiovych SentsovNosorih (Rhino)
labiennale.org ...

, who was imprisoned in Russia. In December 2020, Mansky went for a solitary manifestation outside the

Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation �СБ, ФСБ России (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterin ...

building at the

Lubyanka Square Lubyanskaya Square (, Lubyanskaya ploshchad'), or simply Lubyanka in Moscow lies about north-east of Red Square. History first records its name in 1480, when Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow, who had conquered Novgorod in 1471, settled many Novg ...

, holding men's underpants. The manifestation took place after the publication of opposition leader

Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny (, ; 4 June 197616 February 2024) was a Russian Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia, opposition leader, anti-corruption in Russia, corruption activist and political prisoner. He founded the Anti-Corruption Found ...

's conversation with his alleged poisoner. In February 2022, Mansky spoke out against the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. In April the same year, he expressed his anti-war views at a rally in Riga. As a result of his views, the

Russian Interior Ministry The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD; , ''Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del'') is the interior ministry of Russia. The MVD is responsible for law enforcement in Russia through its agencies the Police of Russia, Migrati ...

added him to their wanted list in September 2022 for slander, following a request by cinematographer

Nikita Mikhalkov Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov (; born 21 October 1945) is a Russian filmmaker and actor. He made his directorial debut with the Red Western film ''At Home Among Strangers'' (1974) after appearing in a series of films, including the romantic com ...

Selected filmography

* ''Vladimir & Oksana in Love Country'' (2022, TV series) * ''Gorbachev. Heaven'' (2020) * Putin's Witnesses (Свидетели Путина, ''Putina liecinieki'', ''Svědkové Putinovi'') 2018 * ' (Close Relations) 2016 * '' Under the Sun'' (В лучах солнца; ''V paprscích slunce'') 2015 * ''Pipeline'' (Tруба; ''Die Trasse'') 2013 * ''Patria o Muerte'' / ''Motherland or Death'' 2011 * ''Gagarin's Pioneers'' (Our Motherland) 2006 * ''Anatomiya TATU'' (Anatomy of

t.A.T.u. t.A.T.u. (, ) were a Russian pop duo consisting of Lena Katina and Julia Volkova. The two started out as part of the children's musical group Neposedy before being managed by producer and director Ivan Shapovalov and signing with Russian reco ...

) 2003 * ''Etyudy o Lyubvi'' (1994) * ''Srezki Ocherednoy Voyny'' (1993) * ''Yevreyskoe Schaste'' (1991)

References

External links

Mansky's personal website
* 1963 births Living people Film people from Lviv Russian film directors Russian documentary filmmakers Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography alumni Lielais Kristaps Award winners People listed in Russia as foreign agents {{Russia-film-director-stub