Ozerov, Iurii

Born Jan. 26, 1921, in Moscow. Soviet film director. People’s Artist of the USSR (1977). Member of the CPSU since 1947.

The son of N. N. Ozerov, Ozerov graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in 1944 and in 1951 from the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography, where he studied directing. Since 1952 he has been a Mosfil’m director. His first production was the nature film In the Nikitskii Botanical Garden (1952); later films were The Son (1956), Kochubei (1958), Fortune (1959, a Soviet-Albanian production), and the comedy The Highway (1963, a Soviet-Czechoslovak production), about J. Haŝ ek’s stay in Russia. Ozerov’s best work is the epic cycle Liberation (The Fiery Salient and The Breakthrough, 1970; The Main Thrust, 1971; and The Battle for Berlin and The Last Assault, 1972). For this cycle, which conveys the nation’s heroism and the courage of the victorious Soviet soldiers and officers in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Ozerov was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1972.

Ozerov is the author and coauthor of a number of his own film scenarios and of scenarios for other directors’ films. He has been awarded the Order of Lenin, three other orders, and several medals.