Aleksei Guerman, whose five completed films as a director constituted a scathing critique of life in the former Soviet Union, has died at the age of 74. According to the Associated Press, his son, Aleksei Guerman, Jr., wrote in a blog post on the Ekho Mosky radio website that Guerman succumbed to heart failure in his hometown of St. Petersburg. He had nearly finished his sixth film (see below). Read the full story here

Tags: Aleksei Guerman, Aleksei Guerman Jr., Ardak Armirkulov, Edouard Volodarksy, Graham Fuller, Grigori Kozintsev, It is Hard to Be a God, Khrustalyov My Car!, Lenfilm, My Friend Ivan Lapshin, Svetlana Karmalita, The Fall of Otrar, Trial on the Road, Vladimir Putin, Yuru Guerman