Bension Kimiagarov

Kimiagarov, Bension Arievich 

Born Sept. 30, 1920, in Samarkand. Soviet film director and screenwriter; People’s Artist of the Tadzhik SSR (1960). Member of the CPSU since 1944.

Kimagarov graduated from the department of film directing of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in 1944, where he had studied under S. M. Eisenstein. He began working in the Tadzhik cinema in 1944.

Kimiagarov’s credits include the documentary films Tadzhikistan (1946; jointly with L. I. Stepanova), Sadriddin Aini (1949), The Land of Youth (1950), Soviet Tadzhikistan (1951), and Four Songs of Tadzhikistan (1965). He has also made feature films, including Dokhunda (1957), A High Position (1958), The Poet’s Fate (1959), The Smith’s Banner (1961), There Will Be No Silence (1963), A Peaceful Time (1965), Khasan-arbakesh (1966), As the Heart Commands (1968), The Legend of Rustam (1970), and Rustam and Sukhrab (1972).

Kimiagarov was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1952. Between 1962 and 1970 he served as first secretary of the Union of Cinematographers of Tadzhikistan. He has been awarded four orders and various medals.