Sergej Bodrov was born in 1948 in Russia. He studied at the Russian film school VGIK, and began his directing career at the Kazakhfilm Studio in Almaty, where he helped to nurture the "new wave" in Kazakh cinema. From 1991-1992, he taught at the Moscow State Film Institute; he has since been a guest professor at UCLA, the University of New Orleans, East Hampton College and the University of Hamburg. The first international retrospective of his work was held at the Toronto Film Festival in 1993; this was followed by tributes at the festivals in Thessaloniki (1996) and La Rochelle (1997) and at the Los Angeles County Museum (1997).

Aside from writing the scripts for his own films, he has written or collaborated on more than twenty films for other directors in Russia, France, Germany and the USA - including most recently Regis Wargnier"s East-West (1999), an Academy Award-nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. He was named European Screenwriter of the Year in 1996. He now divides his time between Russia and the USA. A selection of his award-winning films includes: "Sweet Juice of the Grass" (1984), "Non-Professionals" (1985), "I Hate You" (TV, 1986), "Freedom is Paradise" (1989), "Gambler" (1990), "White King, Red Queen" (1992), "I Wanted to See Angels" (1992), "Prisoner of the Mountains" (1996), "Running Free" (2000), "The Quickie" (2001), and "Bear’s Kiss" ("Der Kuss des Baeren", 2002).

Source: German films Service & Marketing GmbH