Larisa Sadilova (b. 1963, Bryansk) studied acting at the drama faculty of VGIK (1982) and, under the guidance of (and alongside) her teacher Sergei Gerasimov, she debuted as an actress in the film Lev Tolstoy (1984). More than twenty festival awards were presented to her directorial debut Happy Birthday! (S dnyom rozhdyeniya!, 1998), a paradocumentary look at the hectic world of a provincial maternity hospital. The film With Love. Lilly (S lyubovyu. Lilya, 2002) was equally successful, about the tragicomic flirtations of a poultry-farm worker (Tiger Award in Rotterdam, screened in Karlovy Vary in 2003). Two further films testify to the correlation between human expression and social circumstances in the Russian provinces, Babysitter Required (Trebuyetsya nyanya, 2005) and Nothing Personal (2007), which won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Moscow IFF. Her latest film Son (Synok, 2009), about a father's unshakable love for his mischievous son, also plays out in a provincial town.
MFF Karlovy Vary
