Arnshtam, Leo

Born Jan. 2 (15), 1905, in Dnepropetrovsk. Soviet film director and screenwriter; became People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1969; graduated from Leningrad Conservatory in 1923.

Arnshtam worked in the Meierkhol’d Theater as director of the musical section. In film he began as a sound technician, and then became a director and screenwriter. He has made many historical films about the revolution and historical biographical films; he produced Girl Friends (1936), Friends (1938), Zoia (1944), Glinka (1947), and A Lesson Taught by History (1957), dedicated to G. Dimitrov, the leader of the Bulgarian people. He produced the film Five Days, Five Nights (1961) with East German cinematographers. Arnshtam’s film Sofia Perovskaia, about the life of the Russian woman revolutionary, was released in 1968. Arnshtam received the State Prize of the USSR (1946, 1947) and was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.