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Dinara Kuldashevna Asanova (Russian: Динара Кулдашевна Асанова) (24 October 1942 – 4 April 1985) was a Kyrgyzstani-Soviet film director and actress. She graduated high school in 1959 and began to work for Kyrgyzfilm from 1960-1962. She studied at VGIK and graduated in 1968. During her time there, she worked on Larisa Shepitko's 1963 film Heat.

She directed ten films between 1969 and 1984. Her first film, Rudolfio, was directed in 1970. She joined the Lenfilm studio in 1974. Her films were popular in the Soviet Union, they focused on such themes as social problems, social conditions and the tension between adolescents and adults. Asanova never had problems with the censors despite the fact that her films featured such themes.

Asanova's film Dear, Dearest, Beloved, Unique... was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.

Filmography

 * Rudolfio (Russian: Рудольфио) (1970)
 * Woodpeckers Don't Get Headaches (Не болит голова у дятла) (1975)
 * The Key That Should Not Be Handed On (Ключ без права передачи) (1976)
 * Beda (1977)
 * The Wife Has Left (Жена ушла) (1979)
 * The Useless Girl (Никудышняя) (1980)
 * What Did You Chose? (Что бы ты выбрал?) (1981)
 * Boys (Пацаны) (1983)
 * Dear, Dearest, Beloved, Unique... (Милый, дорогой, любимый, единственный) (1984)
 * Children of Discord (Дети раздоров) (1984)

*** Will use all of the information in the original page within my intro, filmography and career portions. The underlined parts are the information used from the existing page.

Dinara Kuldashevna Asanova (Russian: Динара Кулдашевна Асанова) was born in Bishkek (formally Frunze) Kyrgyzstan on October 24, 1942. She is one of the few notable and acclaimed female filmmakers of the late Soviet Union. She is most known for her films The Woodpeaker Doesn’t Have Headaches (Ne bolit golova u dyatla) (1975) and Tough Kids (Patsany) (1983). Although not very well known in the West, Asanova was popular in the USSR. Her career spans over 25 years, unfortunately ending with her death at the age of 42 due to a heart ailment. Between the year 1969 and 1984, Asanova made 10 films. Her films often dealt with the subject of troubled adolescence and incorporated critiques on Soviet society.

Career
After graduating high school in 1959, Asanova began her film career as an assistant director, cutter and actress at the Kyrgyzfilm Studio. During her time at the studio, she worked with Larisa Stepitkos on her film Heat (Znoi) in 1963. Asanova then began studying at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography or VGIK, a Soviet state film school in Moscow. She studied alongside Mikhail Romm and Aleksnmder Stolper, two other famous Soviet directors. For Asanova’s graduation project, she made her first film Rudolfio (1970). Asanova graduated from the university in 1969 and later moved to Leningrad in 1974 to begin working at the Lenfilm Studio. At the studio, Asanova made her first feature film The Woodpecker Doesn’t Get Headaches (1975) which helped establish her position in Soviet Cinema. Asanova would go one to make 8 other films with the studio. Tough Kids or Boys (1983) was her most famous film and largest box office hit. Her career ended in 1985 due to her death on April 4. ***I think this would fit better in a personal life heading

Filmography

 * Rudolfio (Russian: Рудольфио) (1970)
 * Woodpeckers Don't Get Headaches (Не болит голова у дятла) (1975)
 * The Key That Should Not Be Handed On (Ключ без права передачи) (1976)
 * Beda (1977)
 * The Wife Has Left (Жена ушла) (1979)
 * The Useless Girl (Никудышняя) (1980)
 * What Did You Chose? (Что бы ты выбрал?) (1981)
 * Boys (Пацаны) (1983)
 * Dear, Dearest, Beloved, Unique... (Милый, дорогой, любимый, единственный) (1984)
 * Children of Discord (Дети раздоров) (1984)

Rudolfio (1970)
Dinara Asanova’s first film was Rudolfio (1970). The film is an adaption of the 1965 novel Rudolfio by Valentin Rasputin. The main topics of the film are adolescence, young female sexuality, shame and the age of consent. It is about a 9th grade girl named Io who falls in love with Rudolfio, an older married man. Although the film focuses on the topic of female sexuality, many parts of the book that illustrate Io’s sexuality and her lust for Rudolfio was not incorporated to avoid issues with the censors. During the era of the Soviet Union, films were looked at rigorously by Soviet censors to ensure that films subject matter fit with Soviet convictions. After the film was analyzed by the censors, it had to be remade before its official release. Several scenes were removed such as a scene of Io and Rodolfio walking by the sea together. The censors wanted to ensure the message that Io and Rudolfio could not be together was clear. Due to troubles with censors, Asanova was not able to obtain a directorial job for five years. Her period away from making films ended when she started working for Lenfilm. ***''Try to make the difference between the film and the censoring a bit more clear. For a moment, I thought censoring was included in the movie. Making the two more distinct would be helpful.''

The Woodpeaker Doesn’t Get Hedaches (1975)
The Woodpecker Doesn’t Get Headaches (Ne bolit golova u dyatla) was Dinara Asanova first feature film. It was the first film she made when she began working at Lenfilm Studio in Leningrad and it resulted in her gaining a name for herself in *** Soviet Cinema. It also established the style and common narrative themes depicted in all of Asanova’s films ***of realism(?). The Woodpecker Doesn’t Get Headaches depicts a young aspiring drummer who falls in love with a girl during a summer holiday. It is about the difficulties of first love and life long choices of youngsters.

Tough Kids (1983)
Tough Kids or Boys (Patsany) was Dinara’s Asanova’s most commercially successful film. It was made near the end of her career while she worked at Lenfilm Studio and continued the trend of troubled adolescence as the main subject of Asanova’s films. ***The film portrays a story of a graduate student who mentors and then in turn befriends a group of delinquent and criminal boys at a camp. The film was highly acclaimed upon its release and it won Asanova a USSR State Prize.

Narrative
Dinara Asanova’s films often depict peoples and youths struggles in everyday life. Her most notable films such as Rudolfio, The Woodpecker Doesn’t Get Headaches and Tough Kids deal with troubled adolescence and the difficult shift from childhood to adulthood. They also focus on personal issues, the difficulties of Soviet life and questions related to the human predicament. Asanova is considered a member of the “Leningrad School” of filmmakers. This was a group of filmmakers known for their similar film form. The other key members were Vitaly Melnikov, Alexei German, Gleb Panfilov and Ilya Averbahk. Their films were characterized as realistic, ambiguous and incorporated critiques on everyday and Soviet society.

Style
Dinara Asanova’s film style can be described as realistic, documentary style and an unadorned portrayal of the World. She incorporated realism within her work to contribute to her films narratives which often focused on the individual and a realistic portrayal of common life. Asanova is known for incorporating improvisation in her films in the form of dialogue and plot to add to her films gritty and realistic feel. Also, Asanova mixed both known and unknown actors in her films.The young actors were often unknown and featured for the first time.

The Effects of Khrushchev’s Thaw on Asanova’s Film Form
The form of Dinara Asanova’s films and the films of the other directors within the “Leningrad School” represent the changing views and use of the arts during the years of the Soviet Union known as Khrushchev’s Thaw. The Thaw took place during Khrushchev’s presidential term in the 50s and 60s. It was a period of change from Stalin’s cultural politics and strict censorship to allowing writers, artists and filmmakers to criticize soviet social problems and focus on individual experiences rather than only the collective. The effects of the Thaw continued during the later part of the Soviet Union era after Khrushchev's term ended. Asanova is a prominent filmmaker that represents the artists during this period. She was often outspoken on her critiques of Soviet society, particularly on issues of sexuality, gender and everyday soviet life. These critiques can be found in all her films and are often depicted through her young and teenage characters. Although censorship was not as stringent during and after the period of the Thaw, Asanova was strategic at depicting these critiques in her films as to avoid them from being shelved.

Legacy
Dinara Asanova remains as a significant female filmmaker from the late Soviet Union. Despite her early death at age 42, she created several films that contributed to shaping late Soviet Cinema. She was rewarded with the USSR State Prize for her work on Tough Kids and was named Merited Artist of The Russian Federation in 1980, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Three documentaries were made on her after her passing, the first being I Love You All Very Much (1987), the second being Dinara (1988) and the third being Dinara Asanova (2003).

Three Options for Directors:

Kasi Lemmons

Ellison, Mary. “Echoes of Africa in To Sleep with Anger and Eve's Bayou.” African American Review 39, No. ½. (2005): 213-229. Accessed September 19, 2018. https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/stable/pdf/40033649.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Ab1601a768d6e4ec4888d4c60f64dab58.

Stanley, Tarskia L. “The Three Faces in Eve’s Bayou: Recalling the Conjure Woman in Contemporary Black Cinema.” Utah State University Press. (2007): 149-164. Accessed September 19, 2018. https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/stable/pdf/j.ctt4cgnbm.11.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A3b8b8e0515603c1dbea366e90c9bf314.

Mask, Mia L. “Eve's Bayou: Too good to be a 'black' film?” Cineaste; New York Vol. 23, Iss. 4, (1998): 26-27. Accessed September 19, 2018. https://search-proquest-com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/fiaf/docview/204834153/91C46C2D EC1A4625PQ/9?accountid=9894.

Tahmineh Milani

Whatley, Sheri. “Iranian Women Film Directors: A Clever Activism.” Off Our Backs, 33. No. ¾. (2003): 30-32. Accessed September 19, 2018. https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/stable/pdf/20837786.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A7f8e8589c50e3a9ef5af6bf20d41984.

Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. “Iranian Cinema: Art, Society and the State.” Middle East Report, 219. (2001): 26-29. Accessed September 19, 2018. https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/stable/pdf/1559252.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A9846e7bc3768e38cf7453784fd4d0bf2

Claire Moruzzi, Norma. “Women in Iran: Notes on Film and from the Field.” Feminist Studies, 27. (2001): 89-100. Accessed September 19, 2018. https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/stable/pdf/3178450.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A13d796b12d1a9e6928cee02b2c1397c6.

Natasha Braier

Thomson, Patricia. “A Road Though Ruin.” The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques, 95. (2014): 80-90. Accessed September 19, 2018. https://search-proquest-com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/fiaf/docview/1553303551/F27389345D9949B0PQ/1?accountid=9894.

Oppenheimer, Jean. “Looks That Kill.” The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques, 97 (2016): 30-35, 37-43. Accessed September 19, 2018. https://search-proquest-com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/fiaf/docview/1841013748/fulltextPDF/F27389345D9949B0PQ/3?accountid=9894.

Eagan, Daniel. “Natasha Braier, ASC, ADF and the “Female Gaze.” American Cinematographer. August 10, 2018. Accessed September 19, 2018. https://ascmag.com/articles/natasha-braier-asc-adf-and-the-female-gaze.