Mikhail Kalatozov

If you have ever been mesmerized by an impossibly fluid, gravity-defying camera movement sweeping through a Havana casino or swooping over the tragic battlefields of World War II, you have Mikhail Kalatozov to thank. Long before Steadicams, drones, or CGI existed to make directors lazy, Kalatozov was strapping cameraman Sergei Urusevsky into harnesses and handheld rigs to create masterpieces like "The Cranes Are Flying" and "I Am Cuba." Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola worship at his altar, and rightly so.

Naturally, whenever a brilliant 20th-century Soviet artist achieves legendary international acclaim, the Jewish radar starts beeping. The USSR was packed with Jewish directors, cinematographers, and screenwriters navigating state censorship, from Eisenstein to Dziga Vertov. Was Kalatozov another member of the tribe hiding under a Russified surname?

Alas, no. Kalatozov was born Mikheil Kalatozishvili in Tiflis (modern-day Tbilisi), hailing from a noble Georgian family. He Russified his name purely for professional convenience, not because he was trying to dodge the Pale of Settlement or Soviet anti-cosmopolitan campaigns. He was Georgian through and through, meaning his cultural inheritance was khachapuri and churchkhela, not pastrami and babka.

A cinematic titan, an absolute visionary, and the only Soviet director to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes outright. Just don't look for him at shul.