Popular Soviet-era cinema director and writer Rustam Ibragimbekov has died at the age of 83 in Moscow.
Ibragimbekov's daughter, Fatima Ibragimbekova, said on March 11 that her father died of an unspecified illness after battling it for the past three months.
Ibragimbekov wrote scripts for more than 50 movies, including the successful Soviet blockbuster White Sun Of The Desert, which vaulted him to fame in 1969.
Other popular Soviet movies based on his scripts include Guard Me, My Talisman (1986), and Urga: Close to Eden (1991).
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ibragimbekov wrote the screenplay for Burnt By The Sun (1994), which received the Grand Prix at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
For his achievements in cinema, Ibragimbekov received numerous awards in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia.
He was also the author of 15 plays staged in more than 100 theaters in Russia.