Biography
Victor Kossakovsky, born on 19 July 1961 in Leningrad (today: St. Petersburg), began working at the Leningrad Documentary Film Studio in 1978 as a camera assistant, assistant director and editor. From 1986 to 1989 he studied directing and screenwriting in Moscow. Since then he has made numerous documentaries, most of which he authored, shot and directed. His documentary style is characterized by poetic realism. "Belovy" ("The Belovs", RU 1992), his portrait of a pair of peasant siblings, won awards at the documentary film festivals in Amsterdam and St. Petersburg. In "Wednesday 19.07.61" (DE/GB/RU 1997) he tries to track down the 101 people born in Leningrad on the same day as himself; the film won the Documentary Film Prize at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the One Future Prize at the Munich Film Festival and an honorary prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
For "Pavel and Lyalya" (1998), about his university lecturers Ludmila Stanukinas and Pavel Kogan, who now live in Israel, Kossakovskys received the Special Jury Award at the Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Also "Tishe! ("Ruhe!", RU 2002), about life and the changes in his St. Petersburg residential street, ran at numerous international festivals.
Kossakovsky had a great success with "Vivan las Antipodas!" (DE/AR/NL 2011), for which he travelled to eight places that are geographically located exactly on the opposite side of the globe from each other. For the atmospheric images of this film he won the German Camera Award 2012 (Camera Documentary). "Vivan las Antipodas!" was awarded Best Documentary by the Russian Film Critics Guild. For the film, Kossakovsky also won a number of awards at various festivals, including the Reykjavik International Film Festival, the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival and the True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Missouri (USA).
In 2016, Victor Kossakovsky began working on the documentary film "Aquarela" (DE/GB/DK), in which he captures the irrepressible power of the force of nature that is water on film in a variety of ways. The premiere took place in 2018 in the competition of the Venice Film Festival (out of competition). After numerous further festival participations "Aquarela" was released in German cinemas in December 2019.