Eldar Kuliev

Eldar Kaisynovich Kuliev (31 December 1951 – 14 January 2017) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter. He was born to the family of Kaisyn Kuliev, an acclaimed Balkar poet, in Frunze during the deportation of the Balkars to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan . His younger brother Alim Kouliev is a Russian-American actor living and working in Hollywood. His youngest brother Azamat Kuliev is a Russian painter living and working in Istanbul, Turkey.

Kuliev graduated from directing class of Aleksandr Zguridy at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. He was married to a Russian poet Bella Akhmadulina. From that marriage they have a daughter Elizaveta Kulieva, a Russian poet. He is a writer of original script for the TV miniseries The Wounded Stones, named after his father's poetry book and developed at Dovzhenko Film Studios (USSR) in 1987. His novel The Farewell Look, written in Russian, was translated to Balkar language and published in literary magazine Mingitau in Nalchik. The Soviet Officials and the authorities considered Kuliev's creative work, contrary to the "general line" of the existing political regime. He could not publish any other novel or accomplish any film project in the USSR.

Although the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Kuliev could not continue his career as a result of a car accident and a subsequent serious illness. Kuliev died in his apartment in Moscow on 14 January 2017.