Mikheil Kobakhidze graduated from
VGIK in 1965, As a student, he created the short films "Young Love" and "Carousel". His 1964 graduation film "Wedding" won three prizes at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, including the festival's main prize. However, his original graduation film, "Eight and a Half", was considered anti-Soviet and destroyed by censors. In 1966 Kobakhidze made the film "Umbrella", which won the main prize in 1967 at the
Kraków Film Festival. Themes in Kobakhidze's work such as nonconformism, rebellion, disobedience, and individualism ran against Soviet ideology, causing the filmmaker to run into censorship problems. Kobakhidze spent some time living and working in France. A retrospective of the director's films was organized at the
Venice Film Festival in 1996. == Personal life ==