Oleg Pogodin was born on 3 July 1965 in the town of
Salsk. In 1982 he graduated from Secondary School No. 1 in Salsk. He made several unsuccessful attempts to enter the directing department of the
All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). From 1985 to 1987 he served in the Soviet Army. In 1993 he graduated from the film studies program of the Screenwriting and Film Studies Department of VGIK (workshop of Marat Vlasov and Armen Medvedev). Starting in 1992 he worked actively in commercial video advertising. His debut was the first commercial spot for the Russian branch of
Seiko Epson. Pogodin also directed music videos for performers and bands such as
Aleksandr Marshal ("Ливень"),
Nikolai Noskov ("Паранойя", "Снег"),
Nikolai Trubach ("Женская любовь"),
Vakhtang Kikabidze ("Мы уходим"),
Valeriya ("Пополам"), the group Shtar ("Красное платье"), and the band
Bozhya Korovka ("Встреча с любимой женщиной"). In 1999 producer Alexander Eliasberg invited Pogodin to salvage the troubled project *Princess' War*, originally directed by
Vladimir Alenikov. After reviewing the material, Pogodin agreed to finish and partly reshoot the film, released as
Triumph (2000). Film critic
Andrei Plakhov wrote: In 2003 Pogodin directed the mini-series
The Motherland Awaits, a spy comedy based on his own script. His next film, the action movie
Unbeatable (2008), flopped at the box office. The director later recalled: In 2011 he directed the crime drama
Home, about the collapse of a large Rostov family. The film received six nominations for the
Golden Eagle Award (winning three) and four nominations for the
Nika Award, with actor Sergey Garmash winning Best Actor. In 2013 Pogodin released the TV series ''
The Owl's Cry, shot in the style of Soviet spy cinema. In 2021 he directed the adventure fantasy film Upon the Magic Roads, based on the fairy tale The Humpbacked Horse'' by
Pyotr Yershov. ==Filmography==