Shakhnazarov is a Russian director who started his career with the film Shire shag, maestro! (1975). His other films are Na skolzkoy doroge (1977), Kind men (Dobryaki, 1979), Jazzmen (My iz dzhaza, 1983), Winter Evening In Gagry (Zimniy vecher v Gagrakh, 1985), The Messenger (Kurer, 1987), City Zero (Gorod Zero, 1988), The Assassin of the Tsar (Tsareubiytsa, 1991), Dreams (Sny, 1993), American Daughter (Amerikanskaya doch, 1995), Day of the Full Moon (Den polnoluniya, 1998), Poisons or the World History of Poisoning (Yady, ili vsemirnaya istoriya otravleniy, 2001) and The Rider Named Death (Vsadnik po imeni smert, 2004).