Anatoly Eiramdzhan

Anatoly Nikolaievich Eiramdzhan (sometimes transliterated as Eiramjan; Russian: Анатолий Николаевич Эйрамджан, Armenian: Անատոլի Նիկողայոսի Էյրամջյան; January 3, 1937 – September 23, 2014) was a Russian-Armenian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was the creator of the first commercial film in the Soviet Union and also wrote humorous stories and sketches. Eiramdzhan began his career in the 1970s as a screenwriter. In 1989, he started directing films based on his own scripts. In 1992, he founded the New Odeon film studio, where he served as director, screenwriter, and producer of his projects. He was sometimes compared to Ed Wood for his practice of shooting films quickly and on limited budgets. Despite this, his work is noted for sustaining film production during the decline of the Russian film industry in the 1990s and for providing employment opportunities to many actors.