[1][2][3][4][5] He was known as screenwriter of many Soviet movies, such as Lenin in 1918, Amphibian Man, The Blue Bird and Striped Trip, as well as one of the anchors and directors of TV program Kinopanorama (a cinema overview).

Kapler is also known as the first love of Joseph Stalin's then teenage daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva, who was more than 20 years his junior.

According to Stalin's daughter, that was the reason for Kapler to be sentenced in 1943 to five years in exile on charges of anti-Soviet agitation.

[6][7] He was sent to Vorkuta region, where he worked as a photographer and lived in a tiny room partitioned off in the corner of the local photo studio.

[8] In 1948, he was convicted a second time and spent five more years in Inta labour camps, being finally released only in July 1953, after Stalin's death.