Roman Balaian

Armenian-Ukrainian film director Roman Balayan (1941) graduated from the Theatre Institute in Kyiv, where he studied under Sergei Parajanov; his style follows the tradition of Ukrainian poetic cinema. During the 1980s, he drew attention to himself through his ability to tackle urgent contemporary issues in movies inspired by Russian literary classics, such as Guard Me, My Talisman (1986), set during a Pushkin festival.