After graduating from high school No.17 in Donetsk in 1972, Yuri Kara entered the Physics and Chemistry department of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (MISA).

He graduated in 1987 with a thesis film Tomorrow Was the War based on the story written by the Russian author Boris Vasilyev.

Yuri Kara became known in Russia with his movies Thieves within the Law (1988) and The Feasts of Belshazzar, or a Night with Stalin (1990), and with his conflict with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) which was caused by his film Korolev, based on the novel Cassandra's Brand written by the Russian author Chinghiz Aitmatov.

[3] Kara continued making big budget films like Korolev (2007), Reporters (2008 - video) and Hamlet.

Yuri Kara signed the petition of support of Putin's actions in Ukraine and Crimea in 2014.