Renowned Russian film director, screenwriter, film producer and lecturer Sergey Solovyov, best known for his iconic film Assa from the perestroika era starring rock musicians, died on Monday aged 77, a source from his inner circle said.
"Sergey Alexandrovich died today, at home," the source said. The cause of death was not revealed, TASS reported.
He was born on August 25, 1944, in the city of Kem, Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic into the family of a military serviceman. During his school years, he was an actor in the Gorky Bolshoi Drama Theater in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and also played in performances of stage director Georgy Tovstonogov.
Solovyov graduated from the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography, after which he went to work at the Mosfilm film studio headquartered in Moscow. Among the films he directed are One Hundred Days After Childhood (1975), Rescuer (1980), Assa (1987), Black Rose Is an Emblem of Sorrow, Red Rose Is an Emblem of Love (1989) among others.
From 1985, Solovyov was a lecturer at the State Institute of Cinematography. He was the winner of the USSR State Prize in 1977 for his film One Hundred Days After Childhood, the winner of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1976) as well as Kinotavr Prize (1992). The Order for Merit to the Fatherland IV class was awarded to the renowned film director in 2005.
