Chulpan Khamatova

About Chulpan Khamatova

Chulpan Nailevna Khamatova (born 1 October 1975) is a Russian actress. Khamatova has starred in a number of German-language films, and she is considered to be a leading Russian actress. 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. Other notable films with Khamatova's participation include Bakhtiyar Khudoynazarov's picture Luna Papa (1999), 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.