Ilya Averbakh

Ilya Aleksandrovich Averbakh (Russian: Илья Александрович Авербах; July 28, 1934, in Leningrad – January 11, 1986, in Moscow) was a Soviet film director.

[1] Averbakh graduated from Leningrad Medical Institute in 1958 and practiced as a doctor before enrolling in Goskino’s Advanced Screenwriting Courses, where he studied with Evgeni Gabrilovich until 1964.

He joined the Supreme Courses for Screenwriters and Directors (affiliated with Lenfilm Studio), which he completed in 1967; one of his teachers was Grigori Kozintsev.

His solo feature directorial debut, Degree of Risk (1968), based on the book by cardiologist Nikolai Amosov, is about an intense interaction between an old surgeon and a young patient whose life is saved against all odds.

Averbakh’s last film, The Voice (1982), was about a young actress who suffers from a terminal illness and desperately tries to define the meaning of her creative efforts.