Garri Bardin

Garri Yakovlevich Bardin (Гарри Яковлевич Бардин; born September 11, 1941) is a Soviet and Russian animation director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known for his experimental musical and stop motion films. He was awarded the 1988 Short Film Palme d'Or for the Fioritures cartoon and the Order of Honour in 2011.

Early life and education
Garri Bardin was born in 1941 as Garri Yakovlevich Bardenstein in Chkalov (modern-day Orenburg, Orenburg Oblast of Russia) where his pregnant mother Rozalia Abramovna Bardenshtein had been evacuated from Kyiv with the start of the Great Patriotic War. The family was Jewish. His father Yakov Lvovich Bardenshtein was a naval officer who joined marines in 1941 and took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. After World War II, the family moved to Liepāja, Latvian SSR where his father served at the Baltic Fleet.

Bardin spent three years in the Soviet Army, and in 1968, he finished the Actor's Faculty at the Moscow Art Theatre School

Career
Bardenstein joined the N. V. Gogol Moscow Drama Theatre (modern-day Gogol Center) where he served till 1973. The director asked him to shorten his surname which was too long for theatre posters, and he adapted the Bardin stage name. Upon leaving the theatre he spent some time writing stories, plays and TV screenplays. He had been also voicing cartoons since 1967.

Around the same time, he sent a screenplay to Soyuzmultfilm and was suggested to direct the cartoon himself despite his lack of formal training. From then on, he worked as an animation director. Among his first shorts was A Tincan segment from the Happy Merry-Go-Round No. 8 anthology series (1976). In 1979, he directed The Flying Ship, a traditionally animated musical film loosely based on the old Russian fairy tale The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship. The film and the songs by Yuri Entin in particular gained popularity. Bardin then worked on several other hand-drawn films along with Entin.

In 1983, he directed his first experimental stop motion cartoon for adults — Conflict, a Cold War allegory where two groups of matches enter a conflict which leads to a war. It was followed by several claymation comedy films, including Break!, a parody on a boxing match for which Bardin received a Golden Dove award at the 1986 Dok Leipzig. In 1987, he released two films: Marriage made of ropes and Fioritures made of aluminium wire for which he was awarded the 1988 Short Film Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1990, he directed his last Soyuzmultiflm cartoon — Grey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood, a claymation musical film that satirized last days of the USSR. It was awarded a number of awards, including Grand Prix for the best short film at the 1991 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the 1992 Nika Award for the best animated film. After that, Bardin founded and headed the Stayer animation studio where he continued directing claymation and stop motion films, as well as TV commercials. After six years in production, he finally released his first feature animated musical The Ugly Duckling (2010) loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the same name, with a heavy influence of George Orwell's Animal Farm. It received mixed reviews from critics and failed at the box office, while central Russian TV channels refused to show it according to Bardin. At the same time, it gained a number of awards, including the 2011 Nika Award.

Personal life
Bardin was married three times. The son from his third marriage Pavel Bardin (born 1975) is a Russian film director.

Selected filmography

 * Little Locomotive from Romashkovo / Паровозик из Ромашково (1967) - voice actor (policeman)
 * Happy Merry-Go-Round / Весёлая карусель No. 8 (1976) - director, screenwriter
 * The Adventures of Buratino / Приключения Буратино (1976) - voice actor (spider)
 * Practical Joke / Розыгрыш (1977) - actor (French teacher)
 * The Flying Ship / Летучий корабль (1979) - director, voice actor (tsar)
 * Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears / Москва слезам не верит (1979) - actor (chief engineer)
 * Pif-Paf, Oi-Oi-Oi! / Пиф-паф, ой-ой-ой! (1980) - co-director with Vitaly Peskov, voice actor (commentator)
 * Fitil / Фитиль (1980—1981) - director
 * Conflict / Конфликт (1983) - director, screenwriter
 * Break! / Брэк! (1985) - director, screenwriter, voice actor (commentator)
 * Banquet  / Банкет (1986) - director, screenwriter
 * Wedding / Брак (1987) - director, screenwriter, voice actor (Busya)
 * Fioritures / Выкрутасы (1987) - director, screenwriter, voice actor (wire man)
 * Grey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood / Серый Волк энд Красная Шапочка (1990) - director, screenwriter, voice actor (announcer, Gena the Crocodile)
 * Puss in Boots / Кот в сапогах (1995) - director, screenwriter
 * Chucha / Чуча (1997) - director, screenwriter, producer, voice actor (guest)
 * Adagio / Адажио (2000) - director, screenwriter, producer
 * Chucha 2 / Чуча-2 (2001) - director, screenwriter, producer, voice actor (pirate, radio commentator)
 * Chucha 3 / Чуча-3 (2004) - director, screenwriter, producer, voice actor (cow)
 * The Ugly Duckling / Гадкий утёнок (2010) - director, screenwriter, producer, voice actor (drake)
 * Three melodys / Три мелодии (2013) - director, screenwriter, producer
 * Listening to Beethoven / Слушая Бетховена (2016) - director, screenwriter, producer
 * Bolero-17 / Болеро-17 (2018) - director, screenwriter, producer
 * Sandbox / Песочница (2021) - director, screenwriter, producer

Awards

 * "Palme d'Or" at the Cannes Film Festival for the cartoon "Freaks" - 1988.
 * Nika Award for Best Animated Film (Grey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood) - 1992.
 * Award "Nika" for the best animated film ("Chucha") - 1999.
 * State Prize of the Russian Federation in 1998 in the field of cinematography (June 4, 1999) - for the original solution of artistic problems and the innovative use of expressive means in animated films.
 * Nika Award for Best Animated Film (Adagio) - 2001.
 * Award "Nika" for the best animated film ("Chucha-3") - 2005.
 * Triumph Prize.
 * Nika Award for Best Animated Film (The Ugly Duckling) - 2011.
 * Order of Honor (October 13, 2011) - for merits in the development of national culture and art, many years of fruitful activity.
 * Award of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia "Fiddler on the Roof" - 2015.
 * Prize of the Moscow Helsinki Group for the protection of human rights through culture and art - 2017.
 * International Film Award “East-West. Golden Arch" for contribution to cinema - 2021.