Marlen Martynovich Khutsiev[a] (4 October 1925 – 19 March 2019)[1] was a Georgian-born Soviet and Russian filmmaker best known for his cult films from the 1960s, which include I Am Twenty and July Rain.

His mother, Nina Mikhailovna Utenelishvili (Georgian: ნინა მიხეილის ასული უტენელიშვილი) was an actress.

Khutsiev studied film in the directing department at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), graduating in 1952.

[citation needed] Khutsiev's first feature film, Spring on Zarechnaya Street (1956), encapsulated the mood of the Khrushchev Thaw and went on to become one of the top box-office draws of the 1950s.

Three years later, Khutsiev launched Vasily Shukshin "as a new kind of popular hero" by starring him in Two Fyodors.