Khutsiev, Marlen Martynovich

Born Oct. 4, 1925, in Tbilisi. Soviet motion-picture director. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1977).

Khutsiev entered the motion-picture industry in 1944 as an assistant to the art director. In 1950 he graduated from the directing department of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography and made his debut as a director. Major themes of Khutsiev’s work are the problems and relationships of contemporary youth. Detailed, unhurried unfolding of the plot line, distinguished by documentary accuracy, deep emotional drama, and subtle lyricism, characterizes the films Spring on Zarechnaia Street (1956, in collaboration with F. K. Mironer), Two Fedors (1959), I’m Twenty (1965, awarded a prize at the Twenty-sixth International Film Festival in Venice), July Rain (1967), and It Was May (1970, made for television). Khutsiev also directed the television documentary The Red Flag of Paris (1971). He was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.