Yuri Ilyenko

Yuri Herasymovych Ilyenko (; 18 July 1936 – 15 June 2010) was a Ukrainian film director, screenwriter, cinematographer and politician. He directed twelve films between 1965 and 2002. His 1970 film The White Bird Marked with Black was entered into the 7th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Golden Prize.

Ilyenko was one of Ukraine's most influential filmmakers. His films represented Ukraine and what was happening to it. His films were banned in the USSR for their suspected anti-Soviet symbolism. Only in the recent years have his films been re-released and open to the public.

Biography Ilyenko was born in Cherkasy in 1936 but during World War II his family was evacuated to Siberia while his father was in the Red Army. He graduated high school in Moscow and Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in 1960.

He died of cancer on 15 June 2010 at the age of 74. Ilyenko was married to the fellow director Lyudmyla Yefymenko and had two sons,

Selected filmography Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, cinematographer (1965) A Spring for the Thirsty, director (1965) The Eve of Ivan Kupala, director (1968) The White Bird Marked with Black, director (1970) Swan Lake "The Zone", director (1990) A Prayer for Hetman Mazepa, director, actor (2002)