Soviet and Russian director Vladimir Bortko. Biography

Vladimir Bortko, a Soviet and Russian film director, screenwriter, producer, TV presenter and politician, celebrates his 80th birthday on May 7, 2026. People's Artist of Russia, winner of the RSFSR State Prize, author of the cult film adaptations "The Heart of a Dog", "The Master and Margarita", "The Idiot" and creator of the legendary "Bandit Petersburg". About his life and creative path — in the material of Izvestia.

Early years, education, and non-cinematic background

Vladimir Vladimirovich Bortko was born on May 7, 1946 in Moscow into a family of theatrical figures — his father was a director, his mother an actress. Later, together with his mother, he moved to Kiev, where he spent his childhood and youth. It is noteworthy that the cinematic fate was prepared for him from birth, but at first the future director chose a career far from creativity: he graduated from the Kiev Geological Exploration College, served in the army and worked as an electrical technician for several years.

Only in 1969, Bortko entered the Kiev State Institute of Theater Arts named after Karpenko-Kary, from which he graduated in 1974. Having started his career as an assistant director at the Dovzhenko Film Studio, in 1975 he shot his first drama film, The Channel, about the first steps of youth into adulthood. The film immediately won the Grand Prix at the Molodost-76 Film Festival.

The Path to success at Lenfilm

In 1980, Bortko became a stage director at the Lenfilm film studio, with which his entire further creative biography turned out to be connected. The first job at the new location was the production drama "Commission of Inquiry" (1978) about an accident at a nuclear power plant reactor. The film did not become a hit in the year of its release, but after the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, many noted the prophetic nature of the plot.

Bortko's real audience success came in 1984 with the comedy "The Blonde around the Corner," starring Andrei Mironov and Tatiana Dogileva. The film, which tells about the romance of a drunken astrophysicist and a punchy grocery store saleswoman, faced serious production problems — for almost two years the picture was cut and edited to please censorship, calling it a lampoon on Soviet trade. However, after the release, the tape was watched by over 24 million viewers.

"Heart of a Dog" is a masterpiece for all time

In 1988, Bortko released the two-part TV movie "The Heart of a Dog" based on the story by Mikhail Bulgakov. The film, including in the selection of the cast, has become a reference film adaptation. The story of Vladimir Tolokonnikov's approval for the role of Sharikov is noteworthy: during the auditions, the actor drank ordinary water instead of vodka, but "he grunted and hacked so convincingly, the sip traveled so amazingly along his neck, his adam's apple twitched so predatorily that I approved it immediately," the director recalled.

The phrases from the film instantly spread to the people, and the tape itself, despite its initial anti-Soviet orientation, was awarded the Vasiliev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR in 1990. To this day, film critics believe that this film alone is enough to elevate Bortko to the rank of great.

90s: "Streets of Broken Lanterns" and the path to TV series

In 1991, Bortko directed the drama "Afghan Fracture" starring Italian actor Michele Placido, one of the first film reviews of the Afghan War. In the difficult 90s for cinema, he was not left without work: in 1996-1997, under the pseudonym Jan Khudokormov, he directed several initial episodes of the cult TV series Streets of Broken Lanterns and even starred in cameo roles himself.

In 2000, the television series "Bandit Petersburg" based on the novels by Andrei Konstantinov was released. Bortko directed the first two parts — "The Baron" and "The Lawyer" — and then remained the producer of the project. The audience especially remembered the second part, which tells about the moral destruction of a person under the influence of the criminal world. The title song, "The City that Doesn't Exist," performed by Igor Kornelyuk, with whom the director had a long-term creative collaboration, became the anthem of the 90s era.

In 2005, Bortko finally realized his long—held dream - he filmed the novel "The Master and Margarita". The director conceived the project back in 1987, but then he chose "The Heart of a Dog", then he took it up in 2000 - copyright problems prevented him. The 10-episode series with a brilliant cast (Oleg Basilashvili as Woland, Alexander Abdulov as Koroviev, Kirill Lavrov as Pilate, Sergei Bezrukov as Yeshua, Anna Kovalchuk as Margarita) turned out to be as detailed as possible and follows the text verbatim. The use of sophisticated computer graphics for the Margarita flight scene and an electronic robot for the Hippopotamus cat has become a technical breakthrough for Russian television. In 2006, Bortko won the TEFI Award for Best Director.

"Idiot" and "Taras Bulba"

Between these two projects, in 2003, the director released another reference film adaptation, The Idiot, based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The series won seven TEFI Awards and three Golden Eagles. For this work, Bortko was also awarded the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Literary Prize "for his inspired reading of the novel, which provoked a popular response and reunited the modern reader with the Russian classics."

In 2009, a film adaptation of Gogol's Taras Bulba was released with Bogdan Stupka in the title role. The script deviated from the original source: the director removed what he considered to be broken and added new storylines. The film received mixed reviews, but was awarded numerous nominations and awards.

Recent works and new projects

In 2015, Bortko made a film about intelligence officers, "The Soul of a Spy," which was presented at film festivals in Montreal and Vyborg. In recent years, the director has been working on a four-part series about the last years of Joseph Stalin's life. According to the director, Stalin is "the most slandered person in the entire 20th century."

Since 2022, Bortko's author's program "View from St. Petersburg" has been broadcast on the Rossiya 24 TV channel, where he talks about politics, analyzes the causes of the current situation in Ukraine and supports a special military operation.

Family and personal life

Vladimir Bortko comes from a creative dynasty. His father— Vladimir Bortko Sr.— was a theater director, his mother, Maria Zakharenko, was an actress, and his stepfather, playwright Alexander Korneychuk.

In 2007, Bortko joined the Communist Party. In 2011 and 2016, he was elected to the State Duma from St. Petersburg (VI and VII convocations), where he served as deputy and then First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Culture.

The director himself does not like to talk about his personal life, but it is known that he is married to Elena Bortko, who often acts as a costume designer in his films. She participated in the work on "The Idiot", "The Master and Margarita", "Taras Bulba".

In an interview, Bortko admitted that Tarkovsky has the best films, and they are "at most good" for him. "It's impossible to teach a director. If a person does not have the ability, it is impossible to teach him. No way," says the venerable director.