Early life and theater career Chulpan Nailevna Khamatova was born on 1 October 1975 in
Kazan,
Tatar ASSR, in what was then the
Soviet Union. Her parents Marina Galimullovna Khamatova and Nail Khamatov are both engineers. As a child, she was engaged in figure skating and from the eighth grade studied at the mathematical school of the
Kazan Federal University. She was accepted at the
Kazan State Finance and Economics Institute but ended up changing her mind and entered the Kazan Theater School. Teachers Juno Kareva and Vadim Keshner, assessing the prospects of the beginning actress, advised and helped Khamatova continue her studies in Moscow, and she entered
Russian Institute of Theatre Arts, the course of Alexei Borodin. In cinema, Khamatova started acting during the third year of
GITIS –
Vadim Abdrashitov invited her for the role of Katya in the film
Time of a Dancer (1997). Khamatova's breakthrough came with the crime drama
Country of the Deaf (1998) by
Valery Todorovsky where she played Rita. The picture was about
deaf-mute people and Khamatova had to learn
sign language for the role.
72 Meters (2004) and
The Fall of the Empire (2005) by
Vladimir Khotinenko,
Children of the Arbat (2004) by
Andrei Eshpai and
Garpastum (2005) by
Aleksei German Jr. She is best known internationally for starring in
Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), as Lara, the girlfriend of the main character and his mother's nurse. She was on the six-person jury, which was headed by
Catherine Deneuve, at the
63rd Venice International Film Festival in 2006. In 2007, together with professional ice dancer
Roman Kostomarov, she took part and became the winner of the
Channel One figure skating competition
Ice Age. Her marriage to Shein ended in 2017. She is fluent in
Russian,
German,
Portuguese and
English. She also speaks
Latvian.
Philanthropy and politics Khamatova is known for her social activities, she draws public attention to the problems of children with cancer. In 2005, she and
Dina Korzun organized the concert "Give me life" at the stage of
Sovremennik Theatre to help children with hematological diseases. In 2006, Khamatova became a co-founder of the
Podari Zhizn ("Make the gift of Life") charity foundation which helps children suffering from oncological and
hematological diseases. By the summer of 2009, the fund had collected and sent for treatment of these diseases more than 500 million
rubles. One of the permanent sponsors of the fund is Armen Sargsyan In 2012, Khamatova publicly supported Russian president
Vladimir Putin during the
presidential election campaign. According to Russian journalists, Khamatova was put under pressure to save her charity foundation. In 2019, Khamatova said that she would never have done that if she could imagine that he would start the
war in Donbas. On another occasion, she said that she is actually apolitical, but the charity in Russia is heavily dependant on the support from the state. In February 2022, Khamatova was one of signatories of the petition started by
Mikhail Zygar to protest the
Russian invasion of Ukraine. She stated that after she signed the petition, "it was made clear to me it would be undesirable for me to go back," adding "I know I am not a traitor. I love my motherland very much." ==Filmography==