Iuliia Ippolitovna Solntseva

Born July 25 (Aug. 7), 1901, in Moscow. Soviet Russian actress and film director. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1964).

In 1922, Solntseva graduated from the State Institute of Musical Drama. Two years later she appeared in her first film, playing the title role in the film Aelita. Other early roles were Zina in Cigarette Girl From the Mossel’prom (1924) and Opanas’ daughter in Earth (1930).

In 1930 she began working with her husband, the film director A. P. Dovzhenko, becoming a codirector in 1939 and then a director. Among the films she worked on were Ivan (1932), Aerograd (1935), Shchors (1939), and Michurin (1949) and the documentaries Liberation (1940), The Battle for Our Soviet Ukraine (1943), and Victory in the Right-bank Ukraine (1945). She made several films using Dovzhenko’s scripts and themes, among them Poem About the Sea (1958), Tale of Fiery Years (1961), The Bewitched Desna (1963), The Unforgettable (1967), and The Golden Gate (1969), a film about Dovzhenko’s artistic achievements. On the screen she re-created Dovzhenko’s unique poetic vision, which was closely tied to Ukrainian folklore, his lofty civic spirit, and his lyricism. Solntseva has’been awarded three orders, including the Order of Lenin, as well as medals.