Fyodor Khitruk

• Name — Fyodor Khitruk • Native Name — Фёдор Хитрук • Born — 18 April • Birthplace — Tver, Russian Provisional Government • Died — 3 December 2012 • Place of death — Moscow, Russia • Occupation — * Animator • animation director • screenwriter • pedagogue • Years Active — 1937–1986 • Notable Works — * The Story of a Crime • Film, Film, Film • Winnie-the-Pooh trilogy

Khitruk was born in Tver into a Jewish family. He came to Moscow to study graphic design at the OGIS College for Applied Arts. He graduated in 1936 and started to work with Soyuzmultfilm in 1938 as an animator. From 1962 onward, he worked as a director. His first film The Story of a Crime was an immense success. Today, this film is seen as the beginning of a renaissance of Soviet animation after a two-decade-long life in the shadows of socialist realism. Diverging from the “naturalistic” Disney-like canons that were reigning in the 1950-60s in Soviet animated cartoons, he created his own style, which was laconic yet multi-level, non-trivial and vivid. He is the director of outstanding animated short films including such classics as his social satire of bureaucrats, The Man in the Frame (1966), the philosophic parable, Island (1973 film) (1973) about the loneliness of a man in modern society, the biographical film The Young Friedrich Engels (1970), based on drawings and letters of young Engels, the parody Film, Film, Film (1968), and the anti-war film, The Lion and the Bull (1983). In April 1993, Khitruk and three other leading animators (Yuri Norstein, Andrei Khrzhanovsky, and Eduard Nazarov) founded SHAR Studio, an animation school and studio in Russia. The Russian Cinema Committee is among the share-holders in the studio. In 2008, he released a two-volume book titled The Profession of Animation. He is the grandfather of violin virtuoso Anastasia Khitruk. Khitruk lived in Moscow, where he died in 2012, aged 95.

• The Night Before Christmas (Ночь перед Рождеством, 1951) • The Scarlet Flower (Аленький цветочек, 1952) • The Enchanted Boy (Заколдованный мальчик, 1955) • Snowman Postman (Снеговик-почтовик, 1955) • The Twelve Months (Двенадцать месяцев, 1956) • The Snow Queen (Снежная королева, 1957) • The Adventures of Buratino (Приключения Буратино, 1959) • It Was I Who Drew the Little Man (Человечка нарисовал я, 1960) • The Key (Ключ, 1961)

• The Story of a Crime (История одного преступления, 1962) • Stompy (1964 film) (Топтыжка, 1964) (also screenwriter) • Boniface's Holiday (Каникулы Бонифация, 1965) (also screenwriter) • The Man in the Frame (Человек в рамке, 1966) (also screenwriter) • Othello 67 (Отелло-67, 1967) (also screenwriter) • Film, Film, Film (Фильм, фильм, фильм, 1968) (also screenwriter, together with Vladimir Golovanov) • Zigzag of Success (Зигзаг удачи, 1968) (animated sections) • Winnie-the-Pooh (Винни-Пух, 1969) (also screenwriter, together with Boris Zakhoder) • The Young Friedrich Engels (Юноша Фридрих Энгельс, 1970) (co-directed and co-written with Vadim Kurchevsky and Klaus and Katya Georgi) • Winnie-the-Pooh Pays a Visit (Винни-Пух идёт в гости, 1971) (also screenwriter, together with Boris Zakhoder) • Winnie-the-Pooh and a Busy Day (Винни-Пух и день забот, 1972) (co-directed with Gennady Sokolsky, co-written with Boris Zakhoder) • Island (1973 film) (Остров, 1973) (also screenwriter) • I Grant You a Star (Дарю тебе звезду, 1974) (also screenwriter) • The Flight of Mr. McKinley (Бегство мистера Мак-Кинли, 1975) (animated sections) • Icarus and the Wise Men (Икар и мудрецы, 1976) • O Sport, You Are Peace! (О спорт, ты — мир!, 1981) (animated sections) • Olympians (1982 film) (Олимпионики, 1982) (also screenwriter) • The Lion and the Bull (Лев и бык, 1983) (also screenwriter)

Fyodor Khitruk is recorded as having received USSR State Prize, People's Artist of the USSR and Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class.