Fridrikh Ermler

Fridrikh Markovich Ermler (Эрмлер, Фридрих Маркович; born Vladimir Markovich Breslav; 13 May 1898 in Rēzekne – 12 July 1967 in Leningrad) was a Soviet film director, actor, and screenwriter. He was a four-time recipient of the Stalin Prize (in 1941, twice in 1946, and in 1951).

After studying pharmacology, he joined the Czarist army in 1917 and soon took part in the October revolution on the side of the Bolshevists. Captured and tortured by the White army, he only became a full party member at the end of the Civil War.

From 1923 to 1924 Ermler studied at the Cinema Academy. In 1932 he took part in creating one of the first Soviet talkies – the movie Vstrechny (The Counterplan). He also was one of the founders of the Creative Association KEM (together with E. Ioganson). He was one of the main figures in the Soviet propaganda movie industry whose main priority was glorifying Stalin and his supposedly successful leadership in the country’s progress.

A memorial plaque was placed on the house in Leningrad where he lived from 1930 to 1962.

Filmography

 * Scarlet Fever (Скарлатина) (1924); short
 * Children of the Storm (Дети бури) (1926); co-directed with Eduard Ioganson
 * Katka's Reinette Apples (Катька — Бумажный Ранет) (1926); co-directed with Eduard Ioganson
 * The Parisian Cobbler (Парижский сапожник) (1927)
 * The House in the Snow-Drifts (Дом в сугробах) (1928)
 * Fragment of an Empire (Обломок империи) (1929)
 * Counterplan (Встречный) (1932); co-directed with Sergei Yutkevich
 * Peasants (Крестьяне) (1934)
 * The Great Citizen (Великий гражданин) (1939)
 * Balzac in Russia (Бальзак в России) (1940)
 * Autumn (Осень) (1940); short, co-directed with Isaak Menaker
 * She Defends The Motherland (Она защищает Родину), also released as No Greater Love (1943)
 * The Turning Point (Великий перелом) (1945)
 * The Great Force (Великая сила) (1949)
 * Dinner Time (Званый ужин) (1953)
 * Unfinished Story (Неоконченная повесть)'' (1955)
 * The First Day (День первый)'' (1958)
 * From New York to Yasnaya Poliana (Из Нью-Йорка в Ясную Поляну) (1963); documentary
 * Facing the Judgment of History (Перед судом истории) (1965); documentary/interview with Vasily Shulgin