"No, I'll make films", - Dinara Asanova would retort to her family, who had always seen her future in teaching
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In the "small, cozy courtyard" of Frunze, the capital of the Kirghiz SSR, Dinara was the leader of the cultural-educational activities: she directed plays, organized carnivals, set up a library, and managed a children's school. "As a young girl, she gathered kids from her own and neighboring courtyards to conduct her own lessons, which she called 'lessons of joy.' These included games, songs, drawing, fairy tales, nature, and work.
Classes were held on the second-floor staircase, transformed into a classroom. Everyone—both the children and their parents—called her 'Dika Petrovna.' Many years later, when Dinara became a director, the kids would call her by her first name. ('We Kyrgyz don't have patronymics,' Dinara would explain). She essentially remained a strict and fair teacher, but over time, to the lessons of joy, lessons of pain were added," wrote writer and screenwriter Alexander Zhitinsky.
When Dinara Asanova graduated from high school in 1960, she immediately went to the Kyrgyzfilm studio, where notable directors like Andrei Konchalovsky and Larisa Shepitko later began their careers. "Take me to work in film, even as a janitor," she wrote in her application to the studio director, as Asanova later reminisced.
Within two years, she climbed from being a props assistant to an assistant director. With the same persistence, she aimed for VGIK (the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography), saying, "I'll live another ninety-nine years and apply there ninety-nine times if necessary!"
On her third attempt, Dinara was accepted into Mikhail Romm's course. Romm, who Vasily Shukshin credited with his own career, was known for not admitting women to the directing faculty and disliking those without life experience. Dinara often recalled how, during her exam, Romm looked at her through his large glasses, listened to her presentation, and, to everyone's surprise, smiled. "He was charmed by her," said her friend, actress Larisa Umarova.
Dinara Asanova's graduation project, a 20-minute film titled "Rudolphio," based on the controversial short story by Valentin Rasputin, caused quite a stir. The lead male role in this short film about the love between 14-year-old Io and 30-year-old Rudolph was played by Yuri Vizbor, at the personal request of Mikhail Romm. Vizbor recalled, "One day I was at home, and someone rang the doorbell. I opened it to find a Kyrgyz girl standing there, dressed very poorly. I even thought she had brought some gift from Central Asia or something.
She said she was graduating from VGIK and wanted me to act in her thesis film. I, having just returned from Rome, said, 'No, that's not my level.' That evening, Mikhail Romm called me: 'Yura, why did you turn away my best student?' It turned out to be Dinara Asanova, now a remarkable director. Working with her was a pleasure; she dug much deeper into the story, which some saw as a sort of socialist-level paraphrase of Lolita." Besides accusations of "Nabokovian elements that could not exist in the Soviet Union," as per Goskino, "Rudolphio" was criticized as "imitating the West," according to the artistic council of Lenfilm. Asanova barely managed to get her diploma but was barred from filmmaking for five more years until the director of Lenfilm changed.
During this period, Asanova married the artist Nikolai Yudin, whose talent she highly valued ("As for me," she said, "but Kolya..."), and gave birth to their son Anvar ("In other words, I did the most useful thing in my life"). Her subsequent films—she completed only 10 in her 43 years—were released with serious cuts, reworkings, and final approval from Goskino. Asanova faced criticism for her "penchant for actor improvisation" and for working with street kids rather than professional actors.
In the 1970s, despite making mature films about troubled adolescents ("There are no 'easy' teenagers—they are all difficult, and it is hard for them," Asanova clarified), she was labeled as a "children's film director."
To this, she responded, "Honestly, when I first started in cinema, I was indignant when called a children's film director. First, I never supported narrow specialization in creativity, and second, when studying cinematography, I never imagined my fate would be so closely tied to children's films. Now, trying to analyze my work in cinema, I understand why I am so drawn to making films about adolescents: due to their age, they are constantly searching—searching for answers to many questions, searching for themselves. And this journey of personality formation, the painful quest for truth, I go through with them while working on a film."
In 1976, Asanova directed her teenage idol Bulat Okudzhava—she had meticulously copied his song lyrics into notebooks as a student—in the film "Key Without the Right to Transfer." Okudzhava was one of the few who immediately recognized the "strength, determination, and uncompromising nature" in the director. Most others described her as fragile, silent, shy, and even unintelligent.
For instance, Lyudmila Donets, editor of "Cinema Art" magazine, who shared room 524 in the VGIK dormitory with Asanova, stated bluntly: "I didn't find any intelligence in her."
Later, however, she regretted this: "When, many years later, we met at the premiere of 'Misfortune' in the foyer of the House of Cinema, and Dinara said she would speak before the film, I was simply scared: what could she say? I was wide-eyed when I heard her calm, businesslike, reasonable speech from the stage. So much for the quiet girl! It turns out I didn't know her at all."
Asanova spoke to adolescents just as calmly and sensibly: she patiently listened to them, took their stories of troubles and sorrows very seriously, philosophized about life, and generally considered them equals, which endeared her to them. "For her, life revolved around these children," said cinematographer Dmitry Dolinin.
"They came to her home, told her about their romances... She thrived on it, she found it very interesting. Dinara chose people with something cracked inside them. Maybe that's the point because a well-adjusted boy will never play in a film; he can't. Dinara's films can't be called children's films. They are simply about young people because the problems are not childish, and the approach is not childish."
Compared to her colleagues Kira Muratova and Larisa Shepitko, who typically arrived on set in sweaters, t-shirts, and casual coats, Dinara Asanova was quite the fashionista. For example, on the set of the film "The Wife Left," she wore high-heeled loafers, colorful flared trousers, a turtleneck, and a parka with a hood. And of course, she always wore her signature dark-tinted glasses, which became as much a part of her image as her short haircut. Asanova experimented radically with her look only once while at VGIK. Lyudmila Donets recalled, "There was an incident: Dinara shaved her head. But her head was beautifully round, like an apple. She could walk without a scarf because her head was so beautifully shaped." Most of her wardrobe—from cardigans and high-collared shirts to lace dresses—was sewn by Asanova herself. However, she did buy some items, usually from unexpected places. Her favorite bag, a leather hunting satchel, was purchased from a hunting store on Neglinnaya Street. Actor, playwright, and screenwriter Valery Priemykhov noted, "I don't think anyone realized that the bag hanging at the side of an award-winning, well-known director was an ordinary hunting bag with rings for hanging game." He concluded, "Her dress was not overtly national, but among thousands of Leningraders, she certainly stood out. She was seen as someone otherworldly."
Adding to her "otherworldly" persona was her interest in the esoteric. Her friend Elena Rossells recalled, "Shortly before her death, Dinara became fascinated with psychics. I think it was no coincidence: she herself had some of their qualities—she foresaw many things and said that she and her son Anvar could heal pain with a wave of their hands. Her grandmother, who always helped everyone and could heal people, was like an earthly fairy to Dinara. Three or four months before her death, Dinara began telling me (and, I think, others) that she would die soon. I protested, tried to convince her otherwise, got angry, but she kept repeating it."
Dinara Asanova died of a heart attack at the age of 42 in the "Arktika" hotel in Murmansk, where she was filming "The Stranger." Asanova considered this her best work. Actress Ekaterina Vasilyeva, who played the lead role in the film, recalled, "In 'The Stranger,' there was a scene where 11-year-old Polina Fedosova danced alone at home. On set, Dinara encouraged her to move even more freely. Polina danced herself into some sort of fit and suddenly collapsed on the floor. Dinara crossed her arms and started lamenting, 'I can't do this anymore! Why does this always happen to them?' Many of the troubled teens who acted in her films had difficult lives; some died very young. Dinara took it all very much to heart."
Our hero
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