Soviet film director and screenwriter. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1935). Laureate of the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1941). Born in the village of Obuji (now Tsalenjikha Municipality, Georgia). Studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Tbilisi University. From 1922 he acted as a poet. In cinema since 1924. Student K.A. Marjanishvili, in whose group he worked on the film "Petrels" (1925). He was an assistant director Yu.A. Zhelyabuzhsky in the film "Dina Dza-Dzu" (1926). Wrote movie scripts. Since 1927, he worked as a director, where he tried to move away from clichés in the film adaptation of literary works familiar to Georgian cinematography of those years. He attended a course of lectures by L.V. Kuleshov in the lecture hall at the State Film Industry of Georgia. A talented director, one of the brightest representatives of the poetic cinema of the silent period. He died on January 4, 1943 while working on the film "He'll be back", in which he wanted to show the high patriotism of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. Lived in Tbilisi on Vukola Beridze Street, 11. Wife - Nato Vachnadze. Sons - film directors Georgiy and Eldar.
