Stanislav Rostotsky

Stanislav Iosifovich Rostotsky (Russian: Станисла́в Ио́сифович Росто́цкий; 21 April 1922, in Rybinsk – 10 August 2001, in Vyborg) was a Russian film director, the recipient of the two USSR State Prizes and a Lenin Prize.

Early years

Stanislav Rostotsky was born in Rybinsk on April 21, 1922 into a Russian-Polish family. His grandfather Boleslaw Rostotsky served as a general in the Imperial Russian Army and a prosecutor following the Emperor's order. His father Iosif Boleslawovich (1890—1965) was an acclaimed doctor, docent, author of 200 monographs, as well as a secretary of the Scientific Medical Council at the People's Commissariat for Health. His mother Lidia Karlovna (1882—1964) was a milliner turned a housekeeper. He had a brother Boleslaw Norbert Iosifovich (born 1911), a famous theater historian during the Soviet days. At the age of five Stanilsav watched Battleship Potemkin and became obsessed with cinema. In 1936 he met Sergei Eisenstein and took part in his unfinished Bezhin Meadow movie as an actor. Eisenstein became his teacher and good friend later on. He convinced Stanislav that only a well-read and educated person may become a film director. This influenced his decision to enter the Institute of Philosophy and Literature in 1940.