Garri Bardin

Garri Yakovlevich Bardin (; born September 11, 1941) is a Soviet and Russian animation director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known for his experimental musical and stop motion films. He was awarded the 1988 Short Film Palme d'Or for the Fioritures cartoon and the Order of Honour in 2011.

Early life and education Garri Bardin was born in 1941 as Garri Yakovlevich Bardenstein in Chkalov (modern-day Orenburg, Orenburg Oblast of Russia) where his pregnant mother Rozalia Abramovna Bardenshtein had been evacuated from Kyiv with the start of the Great Patriotic War. The family was Jewish. His father Yakov Lvovich Bardenshtein was a naval officer who joined marines in 1941 and took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. After World War II, the family moved to Liepāja, Latvian SSR where his father served at the Baltic Fleet.

Bardin spent three years in the Soviet Army, and in 1968, he finished the Actor's Faculty at the Moscow Art Theatre School. In 1987, he released two films: Marriage made of ropes and Fioritures made of aluminium wire for which he was awarded the 1988 Short Film Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. After that, Bardin founded and headed the Stayer animation studio where he continued directing claymation and stop motion films, as well as TV commercials. After six years in production, he finally released his first feature animated musical The Ugly Duckling (2010) loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the same name, with a heavy influence of George Orwell's Animal Farm. It received mixed reviews from critics and failed at the box office, while central Russian TV channels refused to show it according to Bardin. At the same time, it gained a number of awards, including the 2011 Nika Award.

After The Ugly Duckling, Bardin used Planeta.ru to help crowdfund six more animated shorts, with a seventh on the way.

Personal life Bardin was married three times. The son from his third marriage (born 1975) is a Russian film director.

Filmography

Animation

Director

Touch the Sky (1975); also screenwriter Happy Merry-Go-Round (1976); episode 8, segment "A Tincan", also screenwriter Brave Inspector Mamochkin (1977); also co-screenwriter The Adventures of a Hamster (1978) The Flying Ship (1979) Bang! Bang! Oh-oh-oh! (1980) Road Tale (1981); also screenwriter We Used To Be Birds (1982); also co-screenwriter Conflict (1983); also screenwriter Wham and Bam, House Painters! (1984); also screenwriter Banquet (1986); also screenwriter Frills (1987); also screenwriter Marriage (1987); also screenwriter Grey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood (1990); also screenwriter Puss in Boots (1995) Chucha (1997); also screenwriter and producer Adagio (2000); also screenwriter and producer Chucha-2 (2001); also screenwriter and producer Chucha-3 (2004); also screenwriter and producer The Ugly Duckling (2010); also screenwriter Three Melodies (2013); also screenwriter and producer Listening to Beethoven (2015); also screenwriter and producer Bolero 2017 (2017); also screenwriter and producer Sandbox (2020); also screenwriter and producer Ave Maria (2023); also screenwriter and producer Everlasting Lament (2024); also screenwriter and producer

Voice acting

The Flying Ship (1979) as Tsar Baba Yaga is against! (1979–1980) as Koshchei the Deathless (uncredited) In the Blue Sea, in the White Foam (1984) as Sea Tsar Vykrutasy (1988) as Wire Man The Ugly Duckling (2010) as Narrator

Live action

The Adventures of Buratino (1975) as Spiders in Malvina's pantry (voice) Practical Joke (1977) as French teacher Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980) as chemical plant chief engineer

Awards and honors Short Film Palme d'Or (1988) – for film Vykrutasy Nika Award for Best Animation Film (1992) – for film Seryi Volk & Krasnaya Shapochka Nika Award for Best Animation Film (1999) – for film Chucha State Prize of the Russian Federation (4 June 1999) Nika Award for Best Animation Film (2001) – for film Adagio Nika Award for Best Animation Film (2005) – for film Chucha-3 Nika Award for Best Animation Film (2011) – for film The Ugly Duckling Order of Honour (13 October 2011)