Valeria Gai Germanika is a notorious female director in Russia with an unusual name and an interesting and complex life. Someone endlessly admires her, her ability to show life in her paintings without embellishment, with all the problems. And someone dissatisfiedly discusses her shocking behavior, scandalous antics and independent character. But she certainly doesn’t leave anyone indifferent.
Director's childhood
Valeria Dudinskaya (future Gai Germanika) was born into the family of Igor and Natalya Dudinsky. Father Igor Ilyich is a Russian journalist and writer, and mother is a make-up artist.
Mom wanted to name the girl Matilda, but grandmother was categorically against this name. And in the end, at the insistence of her grandmother, whose opinion was not disputed, the girl was named Valeria in honor of the wife of the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the heroine of Giovagnoli’s favorite novel “Spartacus.”
Her father left the family when Lera was very young. There was a time when a mother had to persuade her ex-husband to communicate with her daughter and help financially. But he was indifferent to their problems and ignored all requests.
Then the mother got married, and the stepfather became a truly caring father for the girl. She even took his middle name when she received her passport. Valeria was a beloved child; she grew up in a friendly, creative family.
From first to fifth grade, the girl studied at a Waldorf school, where she studied fine arts, music, religion, crafts, humanities and Russian epic. In this closed school, they taught according to a special method, focusing on the individual pace of each child, without pushing him or her and without assigning grades.
Valeria Gai Germanika: biography
Valeria Gai Germanika is a young Russian director. Germanika's popularity was brought to her by the scandalous series about the lives of teenagers "School".
Directed by Valeria Gai Germanika
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Valeria Gai Germanika was born in the family of journalist Igor Dudinsky. For the mother, this was the second marriage, and the woman adopted her husband’s surname, being Natalya Chaganova, before that she was Lazareva. The man abandoned the family when the baby was one year old. The father did not consider it necessary to support his ex-wife and daughter financially, and then rejected all attempts by Natalya to remind her of these responsibilities to the family. The woman’s predicament was saved by her mother.
Valeria studied at the Lyceum, where mathematics was compensated for by playing the violin and studying the Bible. In her free time, the girl hung out with the street kids and participated in a girl band.
After finishing 11th grade, Valeria Gai Germanika decided to get an education at the Internews School of Film and Television. Marina Razbezhkina became the teacher-mentor. Upon receipt of her passport, nee Valeria Igorevna Dudinskaya officially changed her name to Germanika Valeria Gai Alexandrovna. She took her middle name from her stepfather, because she absolutely did not want to hear about her biological parent.
Valeria Gai Germanika
The name of her beloved granddaughter was chosen by her grandmother, who was an admirer of the novel “Spartacus” by Raffaello Giovagnoli. An entry in the passport was made according to the new name, the origin of which was historical in nature. Germanica was named after the wife of the ancient Roman emperor Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Since then, the biography of Valeria Gai Germanika has undergone significant changes both in her work and in her personal life.
Adolescence
From the sixth grade, Valeria was transferred to a regular school, which ultimately disappointed her greatly. After the creative and free atmosphere that reigned at the Waldorf school, the girl felt very uncomfortable there. She was very different from the other students. I went to school in black clothes, with my eyes and lips painted black. This annoyed those around her and disliked her. Her classmates called her very cruel names.
At the previous school, children were taught active self-expression, mutual understanding, and respect for each other. In a regular school, she was horrified by the injustice of teachers towards students. It was strange for her to see teachers scolding parents even for their child laughing in class.
Khakamada and Sobchak
“A Short Course in a Happy Life” was completed in 16 episodes, although the general director of Channel One, Konstantin Ernst, who acted as the producer of the project, envisaged 69 episodes (similar to the sensational “School”). However, there were significantly fewer episodes due to the completely different specifics of what was happening on the screen. The series “A Short Course in a Happy Life” has some similarities with the American version of “Sex and the City”; there are also four main characters, and the plot in some individual episodes is similar. The four main roles in the Russian series were played by Svetlana Khodchenkova, Alisa Khazanova, Anna Slyu and Ksenia Gromova. In addition, to increase the popularity of the film, Valeria Gai Germanika invited several famous people to participate in the series. Irina Khakamada, Ksenia Sobchak, Lera Kudryavtseva, musician Roma Zver and other famous personalities responded to the offer to participate in the filming.
Creative career
She studied with the famous documentary filmmaker Marina Razbezhkina. While studying in 2005, she made a documentary film “Girls”, for which she eventually received a prize at Kinotavr. And her second film, “Everybody Dies, But I’ll Stay,” filmed in 2008, was awarded a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2010, Channel One aired the series “School” directed by Valeria, which tells about the life of difficult teenagers and shows life without any embellishment.
The series caused a very controversial and ambiguous reaction from the public and criticism from politicians and religious leaders. Some were delighted with it, while others sharply rejected the film. Many advocated that the series be banned from broadcasting. The teachers who were most outraged were the ones who decided that the film devalued their profession.
Even President Putin expressed his opinion about the film. He said that it shows the director's point of view and that the issues addressed in the film are very relevant.
In 2012, another series by Valeria Gai Germanika was shown - “A Short Course in a Happy Life” - about the lives of young women, about their relationships with men. Famous artists starred in the series: Svetlana Khodchenkova, Kirill Safonov, Alisa Khazanova, Kirill Zhandarov and others.
Movies
The informal girl became a film director at the age of 18. Valeria received her first experience in the film industry as a director in the documentary film “Sisters”. The second short film in the director’s filmography was the film “Girls,” which was later included in the Kinotavr program and was also shown in Cannes at the 59th festival as part of Russia Day.
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Directed by Valeria Gai Germanika
, the 2010 creative biography of Valeria Gai Germanika was productively reflected in the 69-episode film “School”. The resonant story caused a storm of indignation among representatives of the educational sphere and political forces. They tried to ban the series, but higher management agreed to continue filming.
After filming the famous series, Valeria Gai Germanika was invited to the position of creative director of MTV. Despite the filming and launch of a number of projects, none of them were broadcast. Valeria stopped showing up at work because she didn’t see the point of being in the studio.
Personal life
Fans of the famous director are interested in what Valeria Gai Germanika is like in life. Her children always came first. In March 2008, Valeria gave birth to a daughter, Octavia. No one still knows who the girl’s father is.
In 2010, Valeria met with the leader of the group “The Matrixx” Gleb Samoilov. She loved him very much. She treated him like a real prince from a fairy tale. I believed that everything would be just wonderful for them. I tried to make the life of my loved one wonderful. She filmed a video for his group, paid for the apartment, the housekeeper, and bought him clothes. Gleb took this for granted. In addition, he abused alcohol.
She tried to influence the situation, wanted him to stop drinking. But everything was useless. And after a short relationship they broke up.
MOVIE
At the age of 18, Valeria already began working as a director. In 2005, she released the short film “Sisters,” filmed in interview format. The older sister’s reflections against the backdrop of an ordinary apartment made it clear that Germanika was determined to raise sensitive social issues in her work.
In the next more serious project - “Girls” - about the everyday life of teenagers from the outskirts of the capital, Germanika herself seemed to become one of the friends she talked about in her film, reinforcing the realism of what was happening with camera jumps, ill-conceived dialogues and the complete absence of a written plot. The film was included in the program of the Kinotavr festival and received a prize there for the best short film. In addition, it was shown as part of the “Russia Day” at the 59th Cannes Film Festival.
A little later, Valeria made the film “The Birthday of the Infanta” - this is a dramatic story about people who reject society and create their own reality; it was included in the main competition of “Kinotavr”. The work “Everyone will die, but I will remain” brought Germanicus even greater fame. The film was screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival in the Camera d'Or competition and was awarded a Mention Spéciale by the jury for the best debut feature film.
In 2010, the drama “School” premiered on the federal channel. This is a multi-part author's project by Valeria Gai Germanika, a radical series about teenagers. The film can well be called a cult film - no one has ever shown the life of a school like this, and such extreme documentary has never been seen on our television before. For a long time, the series was under the close attention of representatives of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation; they tried to ban it, accusing it of creating a negative image of Russian teachers and schools as a whole.
At the beginning of 2012, the 16-episode film “A Short Course in a Happy Life” was released. This time the director moved away from the story about teenagers and dedicated the film to the story of four 30-year-old friends.
In 2014, Germanika presented two new projects. The first was the drama “Yes and Yes”. Filming lasted only 20 days. The film participated in the main competition of the Moscow International Film Festival and was awarded for its directing, and also received the prize for the best FIPRESCI film. The second project is “May Tapes” - a comedy miniseries about the personal lives of three women.
After some time, viewers saw Valeria Gai Germanika’s new work - the series “Bonus” - the first television rap musical. All monologues and dialogues in the film were presented in the form of recitatives.
Life goes on
The biography and personal life of famous personalities is always of interest to fans. According to rumors, Valeria currently has a new love - actor Alexey Barabash. They were seen together several times at film premieres. Valeria gives ambiguous answers to questions about their relationship. And this makes you think that there really are warm feelings between them.
Despite everything, Valeria is a loving and caring mother, she tries to spend time with her children more often and not use obscene words in front of them. She raises her children in the Orthodox faith and gets along very well with them.
The eldest daughter, Octavia Germanica, grows up very caring and helps look after her little sister. Valeria has complete mutual understanding with her , she consults with her daughter, and she supports her in all her endeavors.
Valeria is not worried about being a single mother , since she is a self-sufficient, successful and self-confident person. Of course, she believes that she will meet another loved one - reliable, responsible, capable of taking care of the family. She dreams of having more than one child and a house on Rublyovka.
"School" was filmed in a school
The series consists of 69 episodes, which were filmed in stages in an ordinary Moscow school number 945 on Orekhovoy Boulevard, Krasnogvardeyskaya metro station. The characters in the film are high school students, boys and girls aged 14-16, who live their everyday school life. The main characters of the series were played by young graduates of theater studios, VGIK and VTU named after Shchepkin. Filming was carried out in the complete absence of scenery, without the use of stationary cameras; all episodes were filmed with a portable camera “from the shoulder.” There was no musical accompaniment; music was played only if it was provided for in the script.
“School” is permeated with all those problems of youth that are the background of the modern life of teenagers. The young actors practically played themselves, since quite recently they all studied at the same school, lived with the same worries, and dreamed of good grades.
Two actresses came to the series “School” who played in the film “Everyone will die, but I will stay.” This is Valentina Lukashchuk and Yulia Alexandrova. Many other actors involved in the series “School”, a year later, will take part in another series by Guy Germanika called “A Short Course in a Happy Life.” Valeria somehow organized a close-knit team of actors and actresses on her own, which is capable of playing as many roles as she wants, speaking as a united, multifaceted front.
