Yuri Bykov

Yuri Anatolyevich Bykov (Russian: Ю́рий Анато́льевич Бы́ков; born August 15, 1981) is a Russian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor.

He is best known for directing the films The Major, The Fool and the TV series The Method.

Yuri Bykov was born on August 15, 1981, in Novomichurinsk, Ryazan Oblast.

First he lived with his parents in a trailer.

Bykov's father was a chauffeur by profession, his mother worked at the Novomichurinsky plant of large-panel housing construction.

Around 1987 his father left for Tyumen and he did not see him again.

Approximately for 12 years, Bykov lived only with his mother.

Later, his mother remarried, the stepfather was employed as a crane operator at a power plant.

Bykov grew up in poverty.

His mother would force him to steal food from the neighbors lot.

He was fond of literature, wrote stories and poems in a local newspaper, went to music school, played in music groups, worked as an arranger in a local studio.

He was a good student at school, but from the ninth grade his grades dropped due to the loss of interest in studies and focus on creativity.

After graduating from school, Yuri Bykov worked as a loader for two weeks, then the next two to three years as a discothèque manager and as a stage machinist in the club of culture, and also attended a local drama group in parallel.

Then he tried to pass exams for the acting department in various educational institutions, but did not go through the competition.

Later, Boris Nevzorov visited Novomichurinsk and watched local performances, he was impressed by Bykov's performance and which made it possible for him to enroll in Nevzorov's course at GITIS.

Six months later he moved from GITIS to VGIK, where there was a free seat, and studied at VGIK for four years.

In 2005 Yuri graduated from the acting department of VGIK (workshop of Vladimir Grammatikov).

After VGIK he played in theaters: the Moscow Art Theater, Et Cetera, the Theater of the Moon, the Russian Army Theatre.

In the latter he played the main role in the play "The Marriage of Belugin", but left during the rehearsal due to low salary and loss of interest.

He played small roles in films and television series.

For six years he was a clown animator in the Armenian children's club "Yauza", where he played the role of Jack Sparrow.

From 2005 to 2009 he made commercials and tried to shoot short films, but ended up not being satisfied with them.

In 2006 he shot a six-minute film "Happiness", in 2007 a five-minute film "Stroka" and in 2008 a fourteen-minute film "Evening".

In 2009, he directed a short film "The Chief", in which he appeared as a screenwriter, director, composer, producer and actor.

The film was awarded the prize for best short film at the Kinotavr Film Festival.

The film was shot using 150 thousand rubles, which Bykov previously planned to invest in his training at the directing faculty of the VGIK from Vadim Abdrashitov, where he was accepted twice.

In 2010 Yuri Bykov made his feature film debut with the film To Live.

He was the director of the series "Stanitsa", but left directly from the set due to creative differences.

Due to a judicial ruling, Bykov had to pay 2 152 500 rubles for his departure to the company Kinotelefilm.

In 2013, his film The Major premiered in the Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2014, the social drama film The Fool was released.

The picture received a number of prestigious awards, including the Grigori Gorin prize for the best script and the diploma of the Russian Guild of Film Critics ("For the uncompromising artistic expression") at the Kinotavr-2014 festival.

In 2014 he became the director of the first season of the crime drama television series The Method, which was released on the screen next year.

Konstantin Khabensky, who liked Bykov's work on the film "The Major", invited him to work as director on the series.

Yuri Bykov notes that he shot the series "according to the principles of the comics" in its light form and followed the instructions of the showrunner Aleksandr Tsekalo about creating a "Russian HBO".

The series received the TEFI award in the category "Television film / TV series" and several other awards.

Bykov refused to participate in the shooting of the second season because he wanted to concentrate on making more auteur films.

Also the film was highly rated by The New York Times critic Stephen Holden, who named it as one of the five best films of 2015.

The crime drama was awarded at several festivals, including prizes for Best Picture, Best Director and For Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the 16th Shanghai International Film Festival.

In 2016, the American company Netflix received distribution rights and plans to remake the film as a mini-series, titled Seven Seconds, which will include 10 episodes.