Fyodor Bondarchuk - 54: For which the successor of the dynasty concealed a grudge against the famous father, and which he did not have time to prove to him

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

May 9 marks the 54th anniversary of the successor of the famous creative dynasty, the famous director, screenwriter, actor and producer Fyodor Bondarchuk. He has not been represented for a long time as the son of the legendary Sergei Bondarchuk, but in his youth he had to make a lot of efforts in order to prove his own creative competence. What seemed to many a gift of fate was a serious test for Fyodor Bondarchuk. Unfortunately, my father was unable to appreciate all the fruits of his independent creative activity.

Famous family

To be born in such a family is both a gift of fate and a great test: the whole country knew Fedor's parents, director and actor Sergei Bondarchuk and actress Irina Skobtseva. The surname Bondarchuk was so loud that he constantly felt the burden of responsibility. At the same time, he did not have any noticeable privileges - his parents constantly disappeared at rehearsals, tours and filming, and Fedor spent most of his time with his maternal grandmother. She became for him a nanny, an adviser, a friend, and a teacher.

At first, he had no idea that his family was somehow different from everyone else: "".

The fact that his father is an outstanding personality, he realized at the age of 6, when he first appeared with him on the set of the film "They Fought for the Motherland." He was then amazed by how many artists, consultants, assistants, make-up artists his father supervises, and how deftly he manages to organize the well-coordinated work of such a large team. Only years later, Fedor admitted that he had childhood grievances against his father. He often took his son with him to the shooting, but at the same time he was in no hurry to let him into the frame. When Fedor was 10 years old, Sergei Bondarchuk worked on the film "Steppe". The son watched as a boy of his age was filmed in one of the episodes, and could not understand why his father did not entrust this work to him.

Choosing a path

Although his parents tried to occupy his time as much as possible with classes in a special school with an English bias and in an art school, he was often left to himself, and therefore skipped lessons in the company of the same acting children. Together with Stepan Mikhalkov, who was the same bully, they often drank and got into unpleasant stories.

In high school, Fedor still did not know what he wanted to do in the future. Mother dreamed that her son graduated from MGIMO and became a diplomat, but his father insisted that he apply to VGIK, to the directing and production department. Already during his studies, Fedor realized that he had found his real calling. A year later he was drafted into the army, and after 2 years he returned to the institute and completed his studies.

Fedor admitted that at first VGIK was wary of him: they say, golden youth, the son of a famous father. Fyodor believed that everyone finally believed that their success was due not only to their surnames, only in 2005, when his first full-length directorial work "9th Company" was released.

Acting and directorial debuts

In the film of his father, Fyodor starred for the first time only at the age of 19 - this was his debut role of the prince in the historical drama Boris Godunov. He did not have pleasant memories of his first appearance on the set as an actor - the debutant was so worried that he was in a faint state. He told about this only years later: "".

After graduating from the institute, Fedor, together with his other Stepan Mikhalkov, founded the first private company in Russia for the production of video clips. His career as a music video maker began with clips for Natalia Vetlitskaya's song "Look in the eyes" and for the song "Goodbye, Mom" by the Moralny Codex group. For 10 years of work in this direction, Fyodor Bondarchuk has shot videos for almost all the most famous performers: Alla Pugacheva, Boris Grebenshchikov, Vladimir Presnyakov, Linda, Angelica Varum, Alena Sviridova and others.

In the 2000s. Fyodor Bondarchuk was awarded many prestigious film awards for both his acting and directing, but his father did not recognize this. He only witnessed his son's very first success, when in 1993 he received the Ovation Award for Best Music Video Maker. And, what is most valuable, this award was presented to him on stage by his father. Fedor said: "". It is interesting that the meeting at the "Ovation" award ceremony reconciled father and son after a conflict that lasted for 8 years: at the age of 19, Fedor decided to marry, and his parents were against his marriage to Svetlana. Then he left home and lived for a long time with his friend Tigran Keosayan. They did not speak to their father all this time.

Father did not find the full-length directorial debut of his son - Sergei Bondarchuk passed away 10 years before the release of the film "9th Company". At that time, Fyodor was already 37. Before that, he did not dare to enter his father's territory for a long time, and in the mid-1990s. explained it this way: "".

He was offended that his father did not see his directorial work in the "9th company". He said: "". At the same time, Fedor is sure that his father would not have praised him, since praise was not accepted at all in their family.

Subsequently, Fyodor Bondarchuk successfully combined acting, directing and producing, and he no longer needed to prove anything to anyone - his works spoke for themselves. Thanks to him, another representative of the famous dynasty, who faced the same problems in his youth, began his path to cinema: What Konstantin Kryukov blames himself for after the departure of his mother, Alena Bondarchuk.