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Russian film director, screenwriter and film producer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roman Olegovich Volobuev (Russian: Роман Олегович Волобуев; born July 31, 1977) is a Russian film and television director, writer, producer, and former film critic. Volobuev is best known for his 8-year tenure as film reviewer at Afisha magazine and for writing and directing TV series The Last Minister and Just Imagine Things We Know.
Roman Volobuev | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Roman Olegovich Volobuev July 31, 1977 Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, producer |
| Years active | 2014–present |
Born and raised in Moscow, Volobuev briefly worked as an investigative reporter at Obshaya Gazeta[1] before starting to write film reviews for the Russian edition of Première magazine, Izvestia, Vedomosti and Iskusstvo Kino and in 2004 became a film section editor at Afisha.[2] He also served as founding editor-in-chief of the short-lived Russian edition of Empire film magazine in 2007[3] and as deputy editor of GQ Russia in 2012.[4]
In 2013, Volobuev and his co-writer Lena Vanina developed a political comedy series Zavtra (Tomorrow) about Russian liberal opposition winning presidential election[5] for an independent cable news station TV Rain. Only pilot episode was produced, since TV Rain ran into political and financial troubles[6] and could no longer finance the show.[7] Volobuev's debut feature film The Cold Front (2016) a chamber mystery drama shot in Normandy was met with mostly lukewarm reviews[8] and failed at the Russian box-office. His second film a satirical action comedy Blokbaster (2017) fared much better with critics[9] and received the Special Jury Prize at Kinotavr film festival,[10] but was disowned by Volobuev after a public spat with producers over the final cut.[11] He eventually found a mainstream success with the black political comedy TV series The Last Minister and a 4-part mini-series about Moscow media industry Just Imagine Things We Know both released in 2020. Volobuev also co-wrote a post-apocalyptic drama series Survivors (2021) and appeared as an actor in Valeriya Gai Germanika's Brief Guide To A Happy Life (2011), Boris Khlebnikov's Hot and Bothered (2015) and Konstantin Bogomolov's A Good Man (2020).
In 2022 Volobuev condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine[12] and emigrated from Russia, effectively ending his local film career.
In 2023 he directed “Riot Days”[13] an hour-long concert film featuring a live performance by the feminist art collective Pussy Riot. [14]
Volobuev is highly critical of Russian authorities, once calling modern Russia "an authoritarian state with good Wi-Fi and a nice urban planning".[15] He was a vocal supporter of Snow Revolution and has been detained during street protests in Moscow in 2012.[16][17]
In 2018, after the arrest of the fellow director Kirill Serebrennikov he publicly urged Russian filmmakers to stop applying for funding from Russia's Ministry of Culture.[18]
In 2022, in a manifesto[19] explaining his decision to stop working in Russia after its invasion of Ukraine he compared moral choices Russian filmmakers currently face to the ones German filmmakers faced under Hitler.
| Year | Film | Credited as | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Writer | Editor | Producer | ||
| 2016 | The Cold Front | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2017 | Blokbaster | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Middleground | No | No | Yes | Yes | |
| 2023 | The White List | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Riot Days | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Writer | Editor | |||
| 2014 | Zavtra | Yes | Yes | Yes | Pilot |
| 2020–2022 | The Last Minister | Yes | Yes | No | 31 episodes |
| 2020 | Just Imagine Things We Know | Yes | Yes | No | 4 episodes |
| 2021 | Survivors | No | Yes | No | 3 episodes |
| Okayannie Dni | Yes | No | No | 1 episode | |
| 2022 | Aurora | Yes | Yes | No | 8 episodes |
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