Sergei Bodrov Jr.

Sergei Sergeyevich Bodrov, often called Sergei Bodrov Jr., was a Russian actor and screenwriter born on December 27, 1971, in Moscow. He is best known for leading roles in *Brother*, *Prisoner of the Mountains*, *East/West*, and *Brother 2*. His father, also named Sergei Bodrov, worked as a playwright, actor, director, and producer; his mother, Valentina Nikolayevna, was a fine art expert. His father had Russian, Tatar, and Buryat ancestry, while his mother was of Belarusian descent. Bodrov died on September 20, 2002, in the Kolka–Karmadon rock ice slide, which occurred at the end of the second day of shooting for his film *The Messenger*.

As a child, Bodrov attended French-language School No. 1265. He believed childhood was the most important and amazing time in life, and that a person’s future is shaped in the first sixteen years. Various reports say he once wanted to be a garbageman and drive an orange car. He wrote about his early years in a piece titled “Composition on the Theme: Eight Events which Influenced Me, or How I Grew Up to Be a Good Person.”

Bodrov initially wanted to study at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, but his father advised that cinema is a passion—if you don’t feel it, wait or forget it. Instead, he enrolled in an art history program at Moscow State University in 1989, graduating with honors in 1993. He stayed for postgraduate studies, though he already knew he wouldn’t work in a museum or library. At university, he said he learned to see beauty in simple things. In 1991, while still a student, he studied art in Italy, working as a lifeguard to fund his travels. He later completed a graduate thesis on “Architecture in Venetian Renaissance Painting” in 1998, earning a Candidate of Sciences degree. When asked if his education was useful, he replied that it allowed him to know a city not just by its shops, but by a painting in a museum—adding a day to your life.

His first acting role came in 1989’s *Freedom is Paradise*, directed by his father, where he played a minor lawbreaker for a few minutes. During university, he had a bit part as a bellhop in the 1992 film *White King, Red Queen*. In 1995, he accompanied his father to Dagestan for *Prisoner of the Mountains*, intending to do any work, but ended up playing conscript Vanya Zhilin alongside Oleg Menshikov. He shared a best actor award with Menshikov at the Kinotavr festival in Sochi. Bodrov never claimed to be an actor, insisting that actors have a different temperament and that a role for him was not a profession but something you do.

From October 1996 to August 1999, he hosted the program *Vzglyad* on Channel One. He left feeling it gave him good schooling—meeting many people, hearing stories, and reading letters. He believed that helping two or three people meant the show had done some good, but it had to be done responsibly. In 1997, he married Svetlana Mikhailova, a television project author. They had a daughter, Olga, in 1998, and a son, Alexander, in 2002.

At the 1996 Sochi film festival, Bodrov met director Aleksei Balabanov, who invited him to the STW film studio where *Brother* was being made. He played the lead role of Danila Bagrov. The film faced media criticism for alleged racism and Russophobia. Bodrov described his character as primitive and simple, but saw him as a metaphor: someone in a primitive chaos who stands up and speaks simple words about defending friends, respecting women, and protecting a brother. The music was by the Russian rock band Nautilus Pompilius, which Bodrov enjoyed. The role made him a matinee idol in 1997. Despite controversy, *Brother* won awards at festivals in Sochi, Turin, Cottbus, and Trieste. Bodrov received best actor awards in Sochi and Chicago, plus the Golden Aries prize. Many in Russia considered the film culturally significant.