MOSCOW -- Prominent Russian film director Sergei Solovyov, whose movies in the late 1980s became symbols of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, has died at the age of 77.
Solovyov's relatives said late on December 13 that the director, screenwriter, producer, and actor died of a heart attack.
Solovyov made more than 30 movies over his career, including One Hundred Days After Childhood, which received the Silver Bear prize in Berlin in 1975 for best director and The Stray White And The Speckled, which won a special award at the Venice Film Festival in 1986.
Solovyov's most prominent film, Assa, made in 1987, became a significant event for Soviet citizens, as its soundtrack included songs by the legendary Soviet rock musicians Viktor Tsoi and Boris Grebenshchikov, whose music was officially banned in the country before that.
Solovyov survived a stroke last year and had several surgeries, after which he was rarely seen in public.