Grigory Chukhray

Before moving into cinema, Grigori Chukhrai served as a paratrooper and infantry officer during the Second World War, and was injured on five seperate occasions in combat, earning him a medal for bravery. After the war he attended the prestigious VGIK film school, and went on to become one of the champions of Soviet neoromanticism cinema. His film 'Ballad of a Soldier', made in 1959, has been lauded as one of the best Soviet war films ever made.