Published on: 2026-10-13
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
When people who grew up in the post-Soviet space imagine Baba Yaga, Koschei the Deathless, or Zmey Gorynych, for most of them, the scenes that come to mind are almost certainly from the same films. The images that have become synonymous with the word “fairy tale” for several generations of viewers were created by one person — Alexander Rou. In 2026, it will be 120 years since the birth of the great director. He didn’t just adapt folk tales to film — he built an entire cinematic world with its own laws, recognizable images, and visual canons. Alexander Rou was the first to translate the oral folk tradition into the language of cinema — and he did it in such a way that his films remain the standard of the genre to this day. Today Gorky Film Studio, subordinate to the capital To the Department of Culture, carefully preserving the master’s legacy.
From Sergiev Posad to the film set
The surname Row was inherited by Alexander from his Irish father; the director’s mother, Yulia Karadjordzhi, was Greek. The parents met in Russia, where Arthur Row came to establish a flour milling business. Their son was born on March 8, 1906. Biographers have not yet confirmed the exact place: some name Yuryevets in Kostroma Governorate, while the director himself listed Moscow in questionnaires. The family idyll was short-lived: when the First World War began, the father went back to his homeland and never returned. The boy and his mother moved to Sergiev Posad (then Zagorsk), where 10-year-old Row sold matches, toys, and combs at the market, and also served at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius.
Later, the director recalled that one of the most important sources of inspiration for him was those very evenings in an old Russian town, when children would surround folk storytellers who, in the mysterious atmosphere of twilight, told their tales. Alexander Rou did not gravitate towards Irish fairy tales or Greek myths, considering himself an heir of the Russian tradition.
Difficult conditions did not prevent the education of the future director. Alexander Rou completed seven years of school, enrolled in an industrial-economic technical college, but was drawn to creativity. At first, there was amateur activity, the agitprop theater “Blue Blouse”—a group that collaborated with Vladimir Mayakovsky and Vasily Lebedev-Kumach. Then came the Boris Chaikovsky film school and the Maria Yermolova drama technical school. The main teacher of the future director was Yakov Protazanov, one of the founders of Soviet cinema. Rou joined him in 1930 by becoming an assistant director at the “Mezhrabpomfilm” studio and worked with him on “The Feast of Saint Jorgen,” “Puppets,” and “The Dowryless.”
“Mezhrabpomfilm” was soon renamed “Soyuzdetfilm,” and then to the Gorky Film Studio. It is with this place that Row’s main creative achievements will be associated.
Magic without animation: stoves, pike, and Zmey Gorynych
Alexander Rou embarked on his independent creative journey in 1938, choosing a new direction for Soviet cinema for his debut — a fairy tale film. The movie “At the Pike’s Behest” enjoyed an unexpectedly large audience success, although initially cinema officials predicted its failure. Rou based it on the play by Elizaveta Tarakhovskaya and combined four Russian folk tales at once, including “At the Pike’s Behest”, “Princess Never Smiling”, “The Dancing Accordion”, and “Emelya the Fool”. The director’s inventions, such as the traveling stove and the walking buckets, were very much loved by children.
It was then that the long-term collaboration between Alexander Rou and Georgiy Millyar began. Millyar initially failed the audition for the role of Tsar Gorokh — he was extremely nervous. But Rou invited him again after some time and eventually approved him. Thus began the story of a creative partnership that lasted 34 years. The principle the director adhered to in all subsequent films he called the realism of fairy-tale action: everything happening on screen must look as authentic as possible, whether it is a village hut or a fantastic beast.
Technically, the film was also innovative. When the snow began to melt before the end of the winter location shoots, the director came up with a trick: Emelya says the phrase “Turn around, harsh winter, into red summer!”, and after that, through double exposure, the frosted tree in the frame instantly becomes covered with leaves. For the self-propelled sled, they used a technique that Row would repeat more than once later: the sled was tied with a rope to a truck and pulled, while the film in the camera was wound in the opposite direction.
Released in 1939, “Vasilisa the Beautiful” was based on the fairy tale “The Frog Princess.” The film became the box office leader of 1940. It was in this movie that Georgy Millyar first played Baba Yaga, embodying his most famous role. According to legend, he himself convinced Rou that Baba Yaga was not a female role: “I’ll endure it all.” The actor created his villainess drawing inspiration from everyday observations, borrowing something from an old Greek woman who herded goats in Yalta and from a quarrelsome neighbor in a communal apartment.
“The Little Humpbacked Horse” (1941), directed based on the eponymous work by Pyotr Yershov, became the first Soviet full-length color fairy tale film. It was released on July 31, 1941, when the Great Patriotic War had already begun. Before it, magical creatures in cinema were replaced by puppets or animation. Rou did everything for real: he filmed a lot on location, often using combined filming techniques. In his films, you can see live cats, dogs, bears, birds, and even fish: for the first time, a pike “spoke” in his debut film. And to show a realistic Zmey Gorynych, Alexander Rou ordered a huge model 11 meters long and five meters high at the Experimental Toy Factory in Zagorsk. The model was transported in parts on four railway flatcars to Yalta, where the filming took place. A team of 20 people had to operate the monster from inside the structure. The dragon emitted real fire and smoke from its mouths.
A film fairy tale during and after the war
During the Great Patriotic War, Rou shot newsreels and also co-directed the novella “Exactly at Seven” from the “Combat Film Collection No. 7.” The filming of the new movie took place in evacuation—in the Altai region and Tajikistan. To get permission to burn a wheat field for one of the scenes, Rou had to write a special request to the Council of People’s Commissars. In the spring of 1945, just before Victory, the premiere of “Kashchey the Immortal” took place. According to the director’s recollections, this film was intended to “tell about the formidable events of those days in the allegorical language of a fairy-tale film, avoiding direct parallels.”
After the war, an era without films began in the USSR: it seemed unreasonable for the victorious country to spend resources on entertainment and children’s movies. “Soyuzdetfilm” was under the threat of closure, but it was saved by director Mark Donskoy. After “Kashchey the Immortal,” he didn’t take on fairy tales for almost 10 years. However, by the 100th anniversary of Nikolai Gogol’s death, in 1952, he was entrusted with the adaptation of “May Night, or the Drowned Maiden” — in a stereoscopic format resembling today’s 3D. And only at the end of the 1950s did Alexander Row return to his fairy tale world. In 1956, he made the stereoscopic comedy “Precious Gift.”
The next two decades turned out to be a truly magical era. At the Gorky Film Studio, Rou directed “Morozko” (1964), “Fire, Water, and… Brass Pipes” (1967), “Barbara the Beautiful — Long Braid” (1969), “Golden Horns” (1972), as well as adaptations of literary works, among which were “New Adventures of Puss in Boots” (1958), “Mary the Craftswoman” (1959), “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka” (1961), and “The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors” (1963). For his works, the director received prestigious awards: the title of Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR in 1961, the title of People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1968, the Order of the Badge of Honor, and the Order of the October Revolution.
“Morozko”: the story of a genuine miracle
One of Row’s most acclaimed fairy tales was filmed in the Kola Arctic near Olenegorsk, where temperatures dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius. He deliberately refused to use studio sets: he needed real snow and cold. Natalia Sedykh’s casting as Nastenka was also a typically directorial decision. He saw the 15-year-old figure skater on television and invited her to audition, even though the artistic council insisted on a more experienced Nadezhda Rumyantseva. However, the director was adamant.
Georgiy Milliar made a significant acting contribution to “Morozko”: he played Baba Yaga and the deacon-robber, as well as voiced the roosters. During filming in Olenegorsk, the pipes burst in the hotel and water flooded the basement where the filmed footage was stored. Almost the entire crew was on location in the forest at that time. Milliar, alone in severe frost, pulled the boxes with the film out of the flooded basement. If the film had been destroyed, it would have been impossible to reshoot the material: the budget and deadlines did not allow it.
A separate story is the resilience of the actors on the film set. Natalya Sedykh had “frost” on her eyelashes created using glue, and it was literally torn off during filming. Inna Churikova, who played Marfushenka, had to portray enjoyment in a forest scene while eating… an onion instead of an apple: the prop was forgotten at the hotel. Alexander Khvylya, who played Morozko, became the country’s main Father Frost for many years and regularly participated in the Kremlin Christmas trees.
The film received the “Golden Lion of Saint Mark” at the 17th Venice Film Festival in the children and youth films program in 1965, as well as the prize of the 2nd All-Union Film Festival in Kiev in 1966. An interesting fact: in the American release, “Morozko” was presented as a thriller with an age restriction, and the only positive character for US audiences was Marfushenka: such a woman, desiring prosperity and a good husband, seemed normal and understandable to them.
Team and legacy: “Finist”, Milliar and Gorky Film Studio
Alexander Rou was conservative when it came to his team. He preferred to work with the same crew: a cinematographer, an artist, actors who understood him almost without words. The director did not give actors precise instructions — he valued improvisation, and from the 1960s he held screenings of all the footage, including failed takes, before the entire group. These screenings were attended like theater premieres. Mikhail Pugovkin, Anatoly Kubatsky, Alexander Khvylya frequently acted in Rou’s films. And of course, Georgy Millyar — he played in 16 of Rou’s films, taking on a total of 27 roles. Georgy Frantsevich transformed into Koschei the Deathless, a devil, a jester, a master of ceremonies, and four times into Baba Yaga. It even happened that professionals like Millyar refused other projects while waiting for a new Rou film. Young viewers at one children’s film festival nicknamed the actor “the most charming supernatural force.”
“Finist — The Clear Falcon” is the last fairy tale credited to Alexander Rou. He did not manage to start the actual production: his involvement was limited to the preparatory period. The director wrote the script, approved the actors, drew sketches of the sets and costumes, and the film was completed by his student Gennady Vasilyev, who strictly followed Rou’s materials. The film is dedicated to the memory of the director.
Georgy Millyar appeared here in the role of the fairy-tale werewolf Kastryuk. The actor for the role of Finist Row was chosen from 50 candidates. Vyacheslav Voskresensky was initially disliked by the director — he considered his face “unsuitable.” But after viewing the first footage, he changed his mind and approved the actor. Filming took place in Zvenigorod, Yalta, Suzdal, and Vladimir. The premiere took place on December 30, 1975, and about 18 million viewers watched the film. The cast included Mikhail Pugovkin (voivode), Georgy Vitsin (Agafon), Svetlana Orlova (Alyonushka), and other well-known actors.
Anyone interested can attend tours at the Gorky Film Studio “From Varvara the Beautiful to Stierlitz: the history of film costume” and “Journey into the World of Cinema”, which take place in the historic building on Sergei Eisenstein Street. There, you can see original costumes from the films “Morozko,” “Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors,” “Fire, Water, and… Brass Pipes,” and others.
Gorky Film Studio is one of the oldest and largest in Russia, the first film studio in Moscow. It has produced over a thousand films: “Seventeen Moments of Spring,” “Officers,” “…And the Dawns Here Are Quiet,” “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka,” “Guest from the Future,” “Moscow-Cassiopeia,” “You Have Never Dreamed…,” “Pirates of the 20th Century,” and many others. Today, Gorky Film Studio is part of a large-scale Moscow film cluster and is reviving its own film production. It includes two filming locations — the historic one on Sergei Eisenstein Street and a new complex on Valdaisky Passage. For aspiring filmmakers, a youth creative space called “Gorky Film Campus” has been created, and for everyone interested in the world of cinema, tours, festivals, and exhibitions are held.
Moscow Film Cluster — these are infrastructure facilities, services, and amenities for filmmakers, which Government of Moscow is developing as part of the ‘Moscow — City of Cinema’ project.
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