Abram Matveevich Room

Born June 16 (28), 1894, In Vilnius; died July 26, 1976, in Moscow. Soviet film director. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1965). Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1950). Member of the CPSU from 1949.

Room studied at the Petrograd Psychoneurological Institute and the University of Saratov. He was director of the Model and Children’s theaters in Saratov from 1919 to 1923 and of the Moscow Theater of the Revolution in 1923 and 1924. He began working in films in 1924. His first film was What Does “Mos” Say, Guess This Riddle. He then directed Death Bay (1925) and Traitor (1926). His film The Ghost That Will Not Return (1930), a major achievement of Soviet cinematography, relentlessly exposed the hypocritical nature of bourgeois democracy. Modern themes were reflected in Third Meshchanskaia (known as Bed and Sofa; 1927), Ruts (1928), and A Stern Young Man (1934). In 1930, Room’s first sound documentary, A Plan for Great Works, appeared as part of the collection Miscellaneous Sound Program No. 1. The film was recorded on the sound transcriber of the engineer A. F. Shorin.

Room’s major work of the 1940’s was the film Invasion (1945; adapted from L. M. Leonov’s play). He directed many film dramatizations, including The Garnet Bracelet (1965; adapted from A. I. Kuprin’s short story), Late-blooming Flowers (1970; adapted from Chekhov’s short story), and The Untimely Man (1972; adapted from Gorky’s play Iakov Bogomolov).

From 1924 to 1934, Room taught at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography. He received the State Prize of the USSR in 1946 and 1949. He was also awarded the Order of the October Revolution, two other orders, and several medals.