Nikolai Burlyayev

Who is Nikolai Burlyayev?

Nikolai Petrovich Burlyayev is a renowned Soviet and Russian actor. Born into a family of actors, Nikolai started his acting career in film and theatre when he was still a child. He is best known for his title role in Andrei Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood. He worked with Tarkovsky again four years later, as Boriska in Andrei Rublev. One of his best adult parts was the lead role in the film Voenno-polevoy roman.

Nikolai Burlyayev is a graduate of the Film Directors’ Faculty of VGIK, where he studied under Mikhail Romm and Lev Kulidzhanov. One of his remarkable films is Lermontov, where he also plays the lead.

Since 1991 Nikolai Burlyayev has been the founder and director of the annual Zolotoi Vityaz Moscow Film Festival of Slavic and Orthodox Peoples, and since 1996 he has been the founder and chairman of the International Association of Cinematographers of Slavic and Orthodox Peoples.

In March 2014 he signed a letter in support of the position of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin on Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.

He is married to Natalya Bondarchuk, and is thus the son-in-law of Sergei Bondarchuk and Inna Makarova.