Emil Loteanu
Emil Loteanu (6 November 1936 – 18 April 2003) was a Moldovan and Soviet film director born in what is now Republic of Moldova. He moved to Bucharest and Moscow in his early life. His best known films are Lăutarii, Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven, A Hunting Accident and Anna Pavlova.
Also recorded as Ėmilʹ V. Lotjanu · Emil Vladimirovich Loteanu
Emil Loteanu

Asybaris01 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Name
- Emil Loteanu
- Born
- 6 November 1936
- Birthplace
- Clocuşna, Kingdom of Romania
- Died
- 18 April 2003
- Place of death
- Moscow, Russia
- Occupation
- Director, screenwriter, poet
- Nationality
- Kingdom of Romania · Soviet Union · Russia
- Education
- Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography · Saint Sava College
- Teachers
- Vasili Toporkov · Grigori Roshal · Yuriy Genika
- Honours
- Order of the Republic · People's Artist of the RSFSR · Mihai Eminescu Medal
- Languages
- Russian · Romanian
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Documentary summary
Emil Loteanu (6 November 1936 – 18 April 2003) was a Moldovan and Soviet film director born in what is now Republic of Moldova. He moved to Bucharest and Moscow in his early life. His best known films are Lăutarii, Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven, A Hunting Accident and Anna Pavlova.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q2610508 · wikipedia · Emil Loteanu
In this article
Biography
Biography
Emil Loteanu studied at Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography and Saint Sava College. Training under Vasili Toporkov, Grigori Roshal and Yuriy Genika is recorded. The recorded working language is Russian and Romanian. Employment is recorded with Top Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors, Moldova-Film and Mosfilm.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Emil Loteanu • Honorific Suffix — OR • Born — 6 November 1936 • Birthplace — Clocuşna, Kingdom of Romania • Died — 18 April 2003 • Place of death — Moscow, Russia • Resting Place — Vagankovo Cemetery, Moscow • Occupation — Director, screenwriter, poet • Years Active — 1959–1997 • Children — 1 • Notable Works — Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven (1975) • Citizenship — Romania Russia Moldova
Life and career
Life and career
• Illustration — 2004 Moldovan stamp • Illustration — 1995 Moldovan stamp • Illustration — Bust in Chișinău Emil Vladimirovich Loteanu was born on 6 November 1936 in the Bessarabian village Clocuşna (now Ocniţa District, Moldova); at the time, the area was part of Greater Romania. His paternal ancestors were from Bukovina. After the annexation of Bessarabia to the Soviet Union, they moved to Bucharest. After the death of his father and losing contact with his mother, who had moved to Romania, he lived his early life on the streets, sleeping in warehouses and hostels. Between 1953 and 1955, he studied at the actor's faculty of the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1962, he graduated from VGIK (workshop of Grigori Roshal and Y. Genik). Between 1952 and 1954, he worked as an actor at the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre. From 1962 to 1973, he worked as a director at the studio Moldova-Film where he made his narrative feature film debut with the heroic and revolutionary film Wait for us at dawn (1963). In 1966, Loteanu directed a motion picture about the Moldavian shepherds titled Red Meadows. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since the year 1968. In his cinematic poem Lăutarii (1971), the director depicted the life of folk musicians. The film's music was scored by Eugene Doga and was the beginning for their long collaboration. The film won the Silver Shell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Since 1973, Loteanu worked at the studio Mosfilm. Film adaptations of Maxim Gorky's Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven and Anton Chekhov's A Hunting Accident, and the biographical film Anna Pavlova, dedicated to the life of the great Russian ballerina, brought him great popularity. In 1976, the film Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven won the Grand Prix – the "Golden Shell" – at the International Film Festival in San Sebastian. A waltz by Eugene Doga from the 1978 film A Hunting Accident became world-famous. One of the producers of his 1983 film Anna Pavlova was Michael Powell. The film was a co-production between Britain and the Soviet Union and featured American director Martin Scorsese in a cameo role. In 1979, Loteanu married actress Galina Belyayeva, who starred in his films A Hunting Accident and Anna Pavlova. Their marriage was a stormy one and lasted five years. They had one child. In the late 1980s, he returned to "Moldova-Film" and worked on Moldovan television, where he made a film adaption of Mihai Eminescu's poem Luceafărul. Between 1987 and 1992, he was President of the Union of Cinematographers of Moldova. He taught courses for theater actors at the Chisinau Institute of Arts. In 1998, he staged the play Unconditionally Yours, Antosha Chekhonte based on Chekhov's "The Bear" and "Wedding" at the Moscow Art Theatre named after M. Gorky. He is an author of several collections of poems and short stories, scripts of his films. He is also an author of poetry for the film The Eighth Wonder of the World (1981). For twelve years, he was trying to get funding to make films. In the 1990s, he was received by the Romanian President Ion Iliescu, to whom he proposed funding to make, together with other filmmakers and actors from Romania and Moldova, more films about the history of Romanians. When Loteanu at long last got financing for his film project Yar he died, leaving the project unfinished. He died from cancer on 18 April 2003 in Moscow, at the age of 66. Galina Belyayeva and his doctors hid the diagnosis from him. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow. • Illustration — Director Emil Loteanu while working on the film Lautarii, Moldova-film.
Quotes
Quotes
Emil Loteanu in 2001, after he received the prize of the Romanian Cultural Foundation
Filmography
Filmography
• Bolshaya gora (1959) – director • Zhil-byl malchik (1960) a.k.a. There Was a Young Boy – director • Zhdite nas na rassvete (1963) a.k.a. Wait for Us at Dawn – director • Krasnye polyany (1966) – writer/director • Freska na belom (1967) – director • Eto mgnovenie (1968) – director • Akademik Tarasevich (1970) – director • Lăutarii (1971) a.k.a. Fiddlers – writer/director • Ekho goryachey doliny (1974) a.k.a. Their Torrid Valleys – director • Tabor ukhodit v nebo (1975) a.k.a. Queen of the Gypsies – writer/director • Moy laskovyy i nezhnyy zver (1978) a.k.a. A Hunting Accident – writer/director • Anna Pavlova (1983) a.k.a. A Woman for All Time – writer/director, actor (the manager of cabaret) • Luceafărul (1987) a.k.a. The Morning Star – writer/director • Vdvoyom na grani vremeni (1989) – writer • Skorlupa (1993) a.k.a. The Shell – director
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Clocușna.
Birth place
Moscow.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Emil Loteanu”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q2610508: Emil Loteanu
General reference · Wikidata
Citations
References
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reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
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