DONSKOY, MARK SEMENOVICH

DONSKOY, MARK SEMENOVICH (1901–1981), Soviet film director. Born in Odessa, he began working in films in 1926. Most of his films were made from his own scenarios. He became famous with Pesnya o schast'e ("Song of Happiness," 1934). His trilogy based on Maxim Gorky's autobiographical accounts: Detstvo Gor'kogo ("Gorky's Childhood," 1938), Vlyudjakh ("Among People," 1939), and Moi universitety ("My Universities," 1940) are distinguished by the vividness and precision of the depiction of Russian provincial life at the end of the 19^th century and by the psychological acuteness of his presentation of character. The direct and candid depiction of suffering in the partisan movement in the Ukraine as seen in Raduga ("Rainbow," 1944) and Nepokorennye ("The Undefeated," 1945; according to B. Gorbatov's novella) made a strong impression and influenced the masters of the Italian neo-realistic cinema. In the second of these two films there is a particularly striking episode depicting the mass execution of Jews in a Nazi-occupied city. Sel'skaya uchitel'nitsa ("The Village School Mistress," 1947) enjoyed considerable popularity. Later films included one about Lenin's mother and screen versions of Gorky's novels Mat' ("The Mother," 1956) and Foma Gordeev ("Foma Gordeev," 1959).

Donskoy was awarded three Stalin Prizes and one State Prize, and the honorary titles of Peoples' Artist of the U.S.S.R. (1956) and Hero of Socialist Labor (1971).

[The Shorter Jewish Encylopaedia in Russian]