Michael Kase

Timur Nuruahitovich Bekmambetov is a Kazakh film director. Born in 1961 in Guryev (now Atyrau), within the borders of the Kazakh SSR, his father, Nuruahit Bekmambetov, was a prominent energy authority in Kazakhstan, and his mother, Mira Bogoslovskaya, was the editor-in-chief of a local newspaper. In 1979, he entered the Moscow Institute of Electrical Engineering, but was expelled for being deemed unreliable, after which he transferred to the Aleksandr Ostrovskiy Theatre and Arts Institute in Tashkent. He graduated from its theatre and set design departments in 1987. During these years, he served in the Soviet Army. In 1994, he made his first film, Peshavar Waltz, but during this period he primarily directed commercials. His significant breakthrough came with his 2004 feature film Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor), an adaptation of Sergey Lukyanenko's novel of the same name. This was followed by Day Watch in 2006. His 2008 film Wanted, starring Hollywood actors James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie, propelled him to international recognition. He directed the Russian comedy Yolki in 2010, followed by Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in 2012 and Yolki 1914 in 2014. In 2016, he directed the remake of the epic Ben-Hur, starring Jack Huston. In 2018, he directed Profile. Bekmambetov, who has two daughters from his first marriage, later married costume designer Varvara Avdyushko.