Nikolai Ekk

Ekk, Nikolai Vladimirovich

 

(real surname, Ivakin). Born June 1 (14), 1902, in Riga; died July 14, 1976, in Moscow. Soviet motion-picture director. Honored Art Worker of the USSR (1973).

In the 1920’s, Ekk graduated from the State Higher Workshops and the State Technicum of Cinematography. After working in the Meyerhold Theater he began his career as a film director. His best known films include the first Soviet sound film, A Start in Life (1931), and the first Soviet color film, Grunia Kornakova (Nightingale, Little Nightingale, 1936). Ekk also made a color film version of Sorochintsy Fair (1939), the television film When the Snow Falls (1962), and the stereoscopic film The Man With the Green Glove (1968). He also directed stage plays.

Ekk was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.