Revaz Chkheidze

{{short description|Georgian film director}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}

{{Infobox person

| image = Rezo Chkheidze 1966.jpg

| name = Revaz Chkheidze

| caption = Chkheidze in 1966

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|12|8|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Kutaisi, Georgian SSR (now Georgia)

| death_date = {{death date and age|2015|5|3|1926|12|8|df=yes}}

| death_place = Tbilisi, Georgia

| alma_mater = Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University

| occupation = Film director

| yearsactive = 1953–2008

| awards = People's Artist of the USSR

}}

Revaz "Rezo" Chkheidze ({{lang-ka|რევაზ "რეზო" ჩხეიძე}}; 8 December 1926 – 3 May 2015) was a Georgian film director,[http://rustavi2.com/ka/news/15387 კინორეჟისორი რეზო ჩხეიძე გარდაიცვალა] {{in lang|ka}} People's Artist of the USSR, best known for his Soviet-era drama films, including his 1964 World War II-themed Father of a Soldier.

== Biography ==

Born in Kutaisi in the family of the writer Davit Chkheidze (he would be executed during the Great Purge in 1937), Chkheidze studied acting at Tbilisi State Institute of Theatre from 1943 to 1946 and continued his education under Sergei Yutkevich and Mikhail Romm at VGIK in Moscow from 1949 to 1953.{{cite book|editor1-last=Sleeman|editor1-first=Elizabeth|title=The International Who's Who 2004|date=2003|publisher=Europa Publications|isbn=1857432177|page=[https://archive.org/details/internationalwho2004ond/page/316 316]|edition=67|chapter=Chkheidze, Revaz|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/internationalwho2004ond/page/316}} Chkheidze directed twelve films and a TV miniseries between 1953 and 2008. He rose to fame with Magdana's Donkey, co-directed with Tengiz Abuladze, which won the Best Fiction Short award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/archives/1956/allAward.html |title=Awards 1956 : All Awards |accessdate=4 May 2015 |work=Cannes}} His 1964 film Father of a Soldier was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1965 |title=4th Moscow International Film Festival (1965) |accessdate=6 December 2012 |work=MIFF |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116145645/http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1965 |archivedate=16 January 2013 }} The Saplings of 1972 won a diploma at the 8th Moscow International Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1973 |title=8th Moscow International Film Festival (1973) |accessdate=4 January 2013 |work=MIFF |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116194922/http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1973 |archivedate=16 January 2013 }}

During the Soviet era, Chkheidze was a Communist Party member{{cite book|editor1-last=Rollberg|editor1-first=Peter|title=Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema|date=2008|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0810862685|pages=147–148|chapter=Chkheidze, Ramaz}} and also served as secretary of Georgian SSR Union of Cinematography, then a top decision-making body in the field, from 1963 to 1981. Also, he was twice elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in 1974 and 1979.{{cite news|title=Georgian film director Rezo Chkheidze dies at age 88|url=http://dfwatch.net/georgian-film-director-rezo-chkheidze-dies-at-age-88-35488|accessdate=4 May 2015|agency=Democracy & Freedom Watch|date=4 May 2015}} He was appointed executive director of Georgia's Kartuli Pilmi studio in 1973, a position he held, intermittently, into the 1990s.

Among Chkheidze's awards and accolades were the title of People’s Artist of the Soviet Union (1980), All-Union Film Festival Prize (1973, 1981), Lenin Prize (1986), Georgia's Order of Honor (1996), and Honorary Citizenship of Tbilisi (2001).{{cite web|title=Revaz Chkheidze|url=http://www.nplg.gov.ge/bios/en/00001598/|website=Biographical Dictionary of Georgia|publisher=National Parliamentary Library of Georgia|accessdate=4 May 2015}} A star in his honor was opened by Georgia's Ministry of Culture in front of the Rustaveli Cinema in Tbilisi in 2013.{{cite news|title=Rezo Chkheidze, creator of prominent Georgian film on WWII dies|url=http://agenda.ge/news/34476/eng|accessdate=4 May 2015|work=Agenda.ge|date=4 May 2015}}

Revaz Chkheidze died on 3 May 2015. He was buried on 7 May at the Didube Pantheon in Tbilisi.{{cite news|title=Rezo Chkheidze will be buried in Didube Pantheon today|url=http://rustavi2.com/en/news/15671|accessdate=7 May 2015|agency=Rustavi 2|date=7 May 2015}}

Chkheidze's daughter Tamar (b. 1960) is a historian and former Soviet-era dissident who was active in Georgia's politics in the 1980s and early 1990s.{{cite book|editor1-last=McCauley|editor1-first=Martin|title=Longman Biographical Directory of Decision-makers in Russia and the Successor States|date=1993|publisher=Longman|isbn=0582209994|page=117|chapter=Chkheidze, Tamara Revazovna}}