Roman Balayan

Roman Gurgenovich Balayan (Armenian: Ռոման Գուրգենի Բալայան, Russian: Рома́н Гурге́нович Балая́н; born 15 April 1941, Nerkin Horatagh, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, Soviet Union^[1]) is a Ukrainian-Armenian film director.

Roman Balayan
Balayan in 2014
Born	Roman Gurgenovich Balayan (1941-04-15) 15 April 1941 (age 84) Nerkin Horatagh, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, Soviet Union
Occupation	Film director

In 1997 Balayan was awarded the title People's Artist of Ukraine.^[2] In 2024, Oleksandr Dovzhenko State Prize awarded for outstanding achievements of Roman Balayan.^[3]

Career

Balayan worked as an actor in the theater of Stepanakert (located in the Nagorno-Karabakh region) in 1959–1961. He studied directing at the Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography and film directing at the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University, graduating in 1969. Since 1970, he has worked at the Dovzhenko Film Studios in Kiev.^[2]

Balayan calls himself a student of Sergei Parajanov. He was nominated and won several international prizes.

He is well-known for his literary adaptations; authors whom Balayan has adapted for the screen are Anton Chekhov (Kashtanka, 1975; The Kiss, 1983, TV), Ivan Turgenev (The Lone Wolf, 1977; First Love, 1995), and Nikolai Leskov (Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, 1989).

His film Flights in Dreams and Reality (1982), a drama about depression and a midlife crisis, is one of his most well-known works. Oleg Yankovsky portrays a creative man in his 40s who feels alienated in society. At the time of its release, politically minded viewers perceived it as a critique of Brezhnevian “stagnation”.^[2]

His 1986 film Guard Me, My Talisman was entered into the main competition at the 43rd edition of the Venice Film Festival^[4] and won the Golden Tulip at the 1987 International Istanbul Film Festival.^[5] His 1977 film Lone Wolf was entered into the 28th Berlin International Film Festival^[6] and his 2008 film Birds of Paradise was shown at the 30th Moscow International Film Festival.^[7] In 2018 he announced, that he may be shooting his next film in Ukrainian language.^[8]

Filmography

• 1978 – Lone Wolf
• 1983 – Flights in Dreams and Reality
• 1983 – The Kiss (based on a story by Anton Chekhov)
• 1986 – Guard Me, My Talisman
• 1989 - Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
• 2008 – Birds of Paradise