Alexander Bogatyrev: life and career

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

After graduating from the Faculty of Philology, Bogatyrev Alexander Vladimirovich proved himself in many areas of writing and directing. He has received several high awards in journalism. During his life, Bogatyrev traveled a lot where, undoubtedly, was reflected in his creative path.

The beginning of the creative path

Bogatyrev Alexander graduated from St. Petersburg University, studying at the Faculty of Philology. At first, to feed himself, he worked as a watchman. Then he began teaching English at one of the schools, and after that at the library technical school. True, teaching activities did not last long. Alexander Bogatyrev devoted all his free time to creativity.

Even in his student years, he began to write scripts, stories and short plays, and became interested in translations. He read his creations at meetings of nonconformist artists in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Four theaters in St. Petersburg wanted to stage his play "Edelweiss", but Soviet strict censorship did not allow this to be done. Byfor the same reason, Alexander Bogatyrev could not make the film "I'm back, father" according to a paid script.

Wandering

While working in the journal "Literary Studies" Alexander Bogatyrev went on a business trip to hot Tajikistan. There he got acquainted with the color of the life of local people, made acquaintances with writers, created a script for a Tajik studio. At the same time, Alexander began his translation activities.

After he went to the north of the vast homeland to collect material for new scenarios. Within two years, from 1985 to 1986, Alexander Bogatyrev traveled the path from Vologda to Arkhangelsk. Stops were made in the villages, where the screenwriter communicated with the local population. He recognized the world around him from the inside, recognized the people, their way of life, way of life and character. A couple of years later, according to the scenario of Bogatyrev, the then-famous director Alexander Sidelnikov made a documentary film "Transfiguration".

The writer had to travel long enough. After wandering around Siberia, four documentaries were shot. A trip to Western countries gave the film "About Russia with Love", which was filmed in France, namely in Paris.

Alexander Bogatyrev often traveled to Abkhazia and Georgia, where he visited a considerable number of parishes and monasteries. Now the writer lives either in St. Petersburg or in Sochi, but in his heart he dreams of living in a quiet town or village, far from the hustle and bustle.

Life in the countryside

After numerous travels, Alexander wanted tomove to the countryside for permanent residence. In 1986, the writer's family settled in the village of Berezaika in the Tver region. They lived there for a little over ten years, until both daughters graduated from high school. Then they moved with the whole family to St. Petersburg.

Village life brought the author of living stories about the common people very close to the "Russian world". Alexander Bogatyrev turned from a caustic Westerner into a simple man with an open Russian soul.

About The Bucket of Forget-Me-Nots

Without a twinge of conscience, we can say that "Leskov of our time" is Alexander Bogatyrev. Books are read with great growing interest, because the storyline in them is unpredictable. In terms of approach to problems and style of presentation, his stories are reminiscent of the work "Little Things in Bishop's Life". They also contain rural priests, vivid images of parishioners, holy fools and wandering around the world. But unlike Leskov's stories, Bogatyrev's actions take place all over the world: Siberia, the Russian hinterland, the capital, Tbilisi, Abkhazia, America, Sochi, Estonia.

Alexander manages to see something special and unique in people. The narration in the stories is very lively, while reading, you can cry and laugh out loud. The narrator can fool around like local villagers on a bench, or he can plunge into deep thoughts and amaze with remarks and reflections about what is happening in life. The book recreates the image of the era through a series of unique images. The author writes about the Soviet era, the dashing 90s, as well as the "stagnant" 80s.

Achievements

Alexander collaborated with the film studio "Lennauchfilm", and also wrote scripts for the St. Petersburg documentary film studio, starting in 1983. More than 30 films were shot according to his author's scripts. Since 1992, he has been making documentaries himself, acting as a screenwriter and director.

At the same time, he writes articles on historical, current social and political topics. Most of all, Bogatyrev pays attention to church Orthodox topics. In 2004, at the Christmas Readings in Moscow, he was recognized as the best journalist of the year. To date, he is a regular author and laureate of the Russian Binding Literary Prize. Alexander was awarded the title of "Golden Pen", authors from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine took part in this nomination.

For more than a decade, the writer was a member of the jury of the Radonezh film festival. He is often invited to other festivals as well. Now his stories are published on the Pravoslavie.ru and Radonezh websites. In the environment of the film industry and publishing houses, many people know Alexander Bogatyrev. The photo from the presentation of Bogatyrev's collection "A Bucket of Forget-Me-Nots" once again speaks of the importance of the author, the interest of readers in his work.