One of the most popular Soviet-era film directors, Georgy Daneliya, has been hospitalized with pneumonia and put into a medically induced coma in Moscow.
The 88-year-old director's wife, Galina Yurkova-Daneliya, said that her husband was rushed to hospital on February 23.
Georgian-born Daneliya made a range of movies that became very popular in the Soviet Union.
His most famous films include Walking The Streets of Moscow, Afonya, Mimino, The Autumn Marathon, and Gentlemen Of Fortune.
In 1979, The Autumn Marathon received the Golden Shell, the highest prize of the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain, and the Pasinetti Award for best film at the Venice International Film Festival in Italy. Yevgeny Leonov's role in the movie won him the Pasinetti Award for best actor.
Daneliya directed the tragicomic cult film Kin-dza-dza! in 1986
Prominent Soviet-Era Russian Film Director Georgy Daneliya In Medically Induced Coma
Russian filmmaker Georgy Daneliya (file photo)