The Legend of Princess Olga

Considered one of the Ukraine’s leading filmmakers of the 1970s and 1980s, Yuri Ilyenko is also a noted cinematographer, best known for his award-winning photography of Sergei Paradjanov’s Teni Zabytykh Predkov/Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors (1964). As a director, Ilyenko’s best-known films include Bily Ptakh Z Chornoyu Oznakoyu/White Bird With a Black Spot (1970), which many critics consider one of the era’s best. Ilyenko graduated from Moscow’s VGIK in 1961 with a major in cinematography and worked as a lighting director at Yalta Film Studios. In 1963, he moved to Dovzhenko Film Studios and two years later made his directorial debut with Rodnik Dlya Zhazhdushchikh. —allmovie guide