Vytautas Zalakevicius

Vytautas Žalakevičius (14 April 1930 – 12 November 1996) was a Soviet and Lithuanian film director and screenwriter. His 1973 film That Sweet Word: Liberty! won the Golden Prize at the 8th Moscow International Film Festival. Vytautas Žalakevičius studied mathematics and engineering at Kaunas University for two years. From 1951 to 1956 he studied film directing under Mikheil Chiaureli and Grigori Aleksandrov at VGIK in Moscow. He shot to fame with his 1956 film Adam wants to be a man starring Donatas Banionis and his teacher, Juozas Miltinis. His best known film, Nobody Wanted to Die, starring Lithuanian and Latvian actors, brought him international recognition. From 1974 to 1980, Žalakevičius was a staff director at Mosfilm. However, his Moscow period was less productive, so he returned to Lithuania. Žalakevičius devoted himself to establishing an independent Lithuanian film industry, and still worked with an international cast of Lithuanian, Russian, and Latvian actors. He also taught directing and writing and worked for television.