Marina Tsurtsumiya

Marina Tsurtsumiya (Russian:Марина Романовна Цурцумия; February 3, 1964) is a Moscow-based director and activist best known for her 1993 film Only Death Comes for Sure.

Early life and education Tsurtsumiya was exposed to the film industry at a young age by her parents. Her mother, studying at VGIK to become a film critic, would take Tsurtsumiya to classes with her. Her father, Roman Tsurtsumiya was a camera-operator who worked with Sergei Gerasimov and as a director of photography for Sergei Bondarchuk.

In her final year of secondary school, Tsurtsumiya applied to VGIK film school and was rejected. She used her father's connections to work as an editor at Gorky Studio until she could apply again. After a year she was accepted and studied with the science fiction director A.M. Zguridi. She also worked for two years as Artistic Director of the advertising agency Art Kraft. She also worked for various charitable organizations and also curated art exhibitions, including the first to show people with developmental disabilities at Russia's Contemporary Art Centre Winzavod. She now owns Tsurtsum Cafe in Moscow located in the Winzavod Centre.

Tsurtsumiya made a number of documentaries that explored various topics related to the history of Russia's capital including Moscow Military and Stronger than Death is Love, a film about Moscow's first hospice. She also collaborated with director Lev Kulidzhanov on a series of historical films about the 21st century titled Recollection of Something.

Tsurtsumiya struggled with the shift in the film industry during the perestroika period. The film production model changed from government supported films in line with state ideology to an industry that promoted films that made a profit. Tsurtsumiya lamented in a 1992 interview, “Now we have new possibilities, but also a new complication--the notion that profit can be made from art. We are in big danger of commercialization."

In a 2009 interview, Russian art-house distributor Raisa Fomina commented on Marina Tsurtsumiya's move away from cinema and into the restaurant business. He said, using Tsurtsumiya as an example, "Seeing that the audience is inert, that their work is not interesting to anyone, that it is useless to wait for support from the state, some talented people leave the profession, start doing something else."

Filmography Year Title Run time Notes 1983 Visiting 10 min. 1987 Recollection of Something 30 min. 1989 Architect Konstantin Melnikov 40 min. Documentary film 1990 Spain: The Light and Shadows of the Republic 70 min. Documentary film 1990 Dominus 70 min. 1993 Only Death Comes for Sure 135 min. Feature film 1995 Moscow Military 26 min. Documentary film 1997 Closer to the Sky 13 min. Documentary film 1999 Stronger than Death is Love 16 min. Documentary film 2004 The Formula of the Wall 26 min. Documentary film 2005 The Road to Stalingrad 26 min. 2007 Where do the Children Come From? 90 min. Feature film