Renata Litvinova

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Muratovna and the family name is Litvinova.

Renata Litvinova
Born	(1967-01-12) 12 January 1967 Moscow, Soviet Union
Occupation(s)	Film actress, director, screenwriter
Spouses	Alexander Antipov ​ ​ (m. 1996; div. 1997)​ Leonid Dobrovsky ​ ​ (m. 2001; div. 2007)​
Children	1 daughter
Website	http://renatalitvinova.ru/

Renata Muratovna Litvinova (born 12 January 1967) is a Russian actress, film director, and screenwriter.

Biography

Litvinova was born in Moscow to Volga Tatar father Murat Aminovich Vergazov and a Russian mother, Alisa Mikhailovna Litvinova. Both her parents were doctors. They divorced when Renata was just one year old. After school, she entered VGIK in 1984 and graduated in 1989. She attended the same year as fellow screenwriters and directors Roman Kachanov and Arkady Vysotsky. It is here where she worked on her first film as a screenwriter for the film The Much Loved Rita. The Last Meeting with Her (1988).

Career

Screenwriter

She began her film career as a screenwriter, writing films from 1988 to 1998. None of her earlier projects such as Truck Drivers 2 (1992) achieved any critical or commercial acclaim. She was discovered by fellow director Kira Muratova in 1994 after Muratova had come across Litvinova's thesis she had written for VGIK. Meeting one another at a local festival, Muratova changed her mind and instead wanted Litvinova to star in one of her films. Litvinova auditioned for the role of the female protagonist Violet but was deemed unsuitable. However, Muratova wanted her in the film and allowed her to write a role for herself. Litvinova wrote herself into the film as a nurse. She continued to write screenplays after her role, which included both Male Revelations (1995) and Principled and Compassionate View (1995). The latter film won the Jury prize at the "Window to Europe" Film festival and was showcased in a number of other festivals around the world such as Japan and Germany. She collaborated with Muratova again in 1997 and 1998, writing two screenplays that Muratova directed. Litvinova's screenplay Three Stories was turned into a film in 1997, she also played the role of Opha in it. Her story To Own and Belong was adapted into the critically acclaimed crime film Country of the Deaf in 1998. In 2017 Renata made her full debut in theatre with her own piece called "The North Wind" in Moscow Art Theatre. She was the director and screenwriter, as well as she played the key role in "The North Wind".

Actress

By 2022, Litvinova has gained a status of one of the leading Russian actresses both in TV and theatre. In 2000, she grew popular for her role of Albino Crow in the TV series The Border. She wrote screenplays for films sparingly after this role and starred in all of the films she wrote. Litvinova became acclaimed in the mid-2000s when she was nominated for her roles in Sky. Plane. Girl. (2002), The Tuner (2004) and I'm Not Hurt (2006). In the Moscow Chekhov Art Theatre, Litvinova played Lyubov Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard, she also played in Le Shaga written by Marguerite Duras and staged by Marie-Louise Bischofberger, ‘Witness for the Prosecution’ by Agatha Christie.

Director

As a director, Litvinova tried herself in many fields. She made her directorial debut in 2000 with the documentary There is No Death For Me. The film focused on the experiences of Litvinova's favorite Soviet Era actresses and gave insight into her views on their stories. As with her screenwriting, she directed sparingly in between her acting roles, directing six films since 2000. She directed her first feature film in 2004, The Goddess, which she also wrote and starred in. In 2006, she directed her first short film, Rado. Litvinova made her first foray into concert films in 2008 when she directed the film Green Theatre in Zemfira. The film was created using footage from a concert of one of Litvinova's friends, musical artist Zemfira Ramazanova. The film won "music film of the year" from independent music award show "Steppenwolf". The two collaborated again in 2010 to create another Ramazanova concert film directed by Litvinova called Moscow. Crokus/Arrow. Finally, Ramazanova served as the composer on Litvinova's second full-length feature film Rita's Last FairyTale (2012), which deals with "universal themes of love, hate and search for love."

Through the years, Litvinova directed more than 15 video clips for Russian musicians and singers, since 2005 they mostly collaborated with Zemfira. In 2021, she directed a 13-minute promo film for Gucci.

Voice actress

She lent her voice to the film $8.50 (1999) to be used as a voiceover for the character Xenia who was played by Natalia Adreichenko. Her voice appeared in a number of other films in the 2000s, including Frog's Paradise (2007) and Peregrine (2008).

Fashion and TV

On TV, Litvinova hosted several author's programs on style, history of fashion and cinematography. Litvinova had also emerged as a designer and fashion icon of her own. A friend and collaborator of Demna Gvasalia; she also worked on Gosha Rubchinskiy's film, 'The Day of My Death'.

Personal life

Her first marriage was to producer Alexander Antipov, a union that lasted from 1996 to 1997. She then married businessman Leonid Dobrovsky, with whom she had her daughter Ulyana. The couple divorced in 2007. Litvinova came out as bisexual in 2021.

In February 2022, she opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and left Russia. In the meantime, she had decided to reside with her partner Zemfira in Paris.

Filmography

Year	Film
		Director	Screenwriter	Voice Actor	Producer	Actress	Role	Notes
1990	Leningrad. November.		Y
1991	Not Love		Y
1992	Tractor Drivers 2		Y
1994	Passions		Y			Y	nurse Lily
1995	Male Revelations		Y
1995	Principled and Compassionate View		Y
1997	Three Stories		Y			Y	Opha
1998	Country of the Deaf		Y
1999	The Right to Choose					Y	Nika
1999	$8.50			Y			Xenia (role played by Natalia Adreichenko)
2000	The Border					Y	Albino Crow
2000	There is No Death For Me	Y						Documentary film
2001	The Black Room					Y	dealer in a casino
2001	Berlin Express					Y	intelligence agent
2001	April					Y	Nastasia
2002	Sky. Plane. Girl.		Y		Y	Y	Lara the stewardess
2003	The Suitcases of Tulse Luper (Part III)					Y	Constance Bulitsky
2004	The Tuner					Y	Lina
2004	The Goddess	Y	Y		Y	Y	investigator Faina
2004	Saboteur					Y	chief of station
2005	Dead Man's Bluff					Y	waitress/secretary Katya
2005	Vocal Parallels					Y	entertainer
2006	Nine Months					Y
2006	Tin Plate					Y	wife of a nude man
2006	It Doesn't Hurt Me					Y	Tata
2006	Rado	Y						Short Film
2007	Two in One		Y			Y	Alissa
2007	Cruelty		Y			Y	Zoya Andreyevna Vyatkina
2007	Frog's Paradise			Y
2008	To Catch a Brunette					Y	woman in the photograph - Masha's Mom
2008	Peregrine			Y			Gala
2008	The Adventures of Alyonushka and Eremu			Y			Aunt Yefrosinya
2008	Green Theatre in Zemfira	Y			Y			Full-length concert film
2009	Jolly Fellows					Y	Eugenia, wife of Rosa
2009	Ordered to be Destroyed! Operation "Chinese Box"					Y	Charlotte
2009	Melody for a Street Organ					Y	Kitty
2009	The Golden Section					Y	Katyusha, the owner of the photo studio
2010	Rorrima Bo's Magic Cup					Y	senior pioneer leader, witch
2010	Diamonds. Theft.					Y	woman with a big nose
2010	Moscow. Crocus/Arrow	Y
2011	Generation P					Y	Alla
2011	Heart of a Boomerang					Y	enchantress
2012	Rita's Last Fairy Tale	Y	Y		Y	Y	Tanya Neubivko
2012	The Girl and Death					Y	Nina
2012	Eternal Return					Y	She
2014	Concrete Gene					Y	Chief editor of "Our Crime"
2015	About Love					Y	lecturer
2016	The Day of My Death	Y	Y			Y	not credited	Short Film
2018	ANGST					Y	Frau Doktor Oberhaupt
2020	The North Wind	Y	Y		Y	Y	Margarita

Awards and honours

• Best Acting Debut at Kinotavr for her role in "Passions" (1994)
• "Woman-style" Film Award for her role in "Passions" (1994)
• Best Actress at Yekaterinburg film festival for her role in "Three Stories" (1997)
• Best Supporting Actress at the International Film Festival "Baltic Pearl" in Riga, Jurmala, for her role "Three Stories" (1997)
• Laurel branch for "There is no death for me" (2000)
• State Prize of the Russian Federation for her role in "Border. Taiga Affair" (2001)
• Best Actress at RKF "Literature and Cinema" in Gatchina for her role in "Heaven. Plane. Woman" (2003)
• Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation (2003)
• Best Actress for CF "Viva Cinema of Russia" in St. Petersburg for her role in "The Tuner" (2005)
• Jury Special Mention at International Film Festival in Wiesbaden goEast for her role in "Goddess: How I Fell in Love" (2005)
• Jury Special Mention at International Film Festival in Wiesbaden goEast for her role in "The Tuner" (2005)
• Best Actress at Kinotavr for her role in "I'm not hurt" (2006)
• National award of public recognition of the achievements of women "Olympia" of the Russian Academy of Business and Entrepreneurship (2007)
• Pushkin Medal (2012)
• Best Actress, film About Love, The Golden Unicorn Awards 2016

External links

• Media related to Renata Litvinova at Wikimedia Commons
• Renata Litvinova at IMDb