Legendary Soviet Filmmaker Dies at 74

Legendary filmmaker Alexei German died Thursday at the age of 74. The cause of his death was not immediately known, but his son wrote on his Ekho Moskvy blog that his father’s “heart simply stopped.” A later report from RIA-Novosti cited kidney failure as the cause of death. He died at a hospital in St. Petersburg, where he has been undergoing treatment since falling ill in November. The son of a prominent Soviet writer, German became a dissident-leaning filmmaker, shooting films depicting grim Soviet reality that were often shelved by censors due to their critical nature. One of his most…

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