Sergei Seregin, who directed the animated series The Secret of the Sukharev Tower, died under tragic circumstances

Shortly before his death, he worked in Georgia on a documentary and took exams at VGIK

There was no director Sergei Seregin. He was 56 years old. He was a young father: he had a little son and a daughter born a few months ago. The cause of his death is shocking. According to preliminary information, it is connected either with mouse fever, or with a tick bite.

Farewell will take place on July 19. The funeral service will be held in the Church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious in Georgia, a civil memorial service will be held at the Cinema House. Sergei will be buried at the Sheremetyevsky cemetery in Dolgoprudny.

A couple of weeks before his tragic death, he was filming a documentary in Georgia. And when he returned home, he took exams at VGIK, where he recruited directors of multimedia and animation. Some of the applicants managed to give grades. The second exam was already taken by another teacher, and by the third they reported that Sergei Seregin was in the hospital. He ended up in the infectious diseases department.

Many people know him as an animated film director, behind whom are the full-length cartoons “Alice’s Birthday” and “The Wizard of Balance”, the animated series “The Secret of the Sukharev Tower”, the short films “Lukomorye. Nanny” about Pushkin, “Keys to Time”, “White-browed” according to Chekhov. Sergei worked for many years at the Suzdal Animation Festival, stood at its origins back in Tarusa. In March, he came to Suzdal with his children, managing to raise them, rocking them in his arms, and manage the process. He got up before anyone else, because he was responsible for the morning exercise program of children’s animation studios that opened the day. He came up with the Firebird children’s animation festival in Novosibirsk and became its president.

Sergei shot documentaries mainly about people associated with animation – Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, Fyodor Khitruk, Marina Kurchevskaya. In 2020, he made his feature film debut and his film is called Animation. The premiere took place in winter Vyborg, at the Window to Europe festival. The year was covid, and the movie was shown in a half-empty hall, exclusively for a few participants and critics. There were no spectators then.

After the film, the four of us celebrated the premiere in an empty and decorated New Year’s cafe. Sergei introduced us to the lead actress Irina Verbitskaya. Her heroine Vera is an animator. Her husband and son were killed in the fire. Fleeing her memories, Vera leaves Moscow for her hometown, which was filmed in Tutaev. There she leads an animation circle, and among her students will be the son of a friend and the mayor of the town. The father brings up his son as a real patriot, and the boy is haunted by sinister visions, which will be reflected in his cartoon. “Animation” is based on the real stories of Sergei’s friends and colleagues and has become a very personal statement for him.

Now that Sergei is gone, you look at his to-do list and marvel at his human versatility. During his lifetime, many things seemed to be taken for granted. Seregin was extremely modest, democratic and benevolent, he never boasted of his achievements. He could turn the ordinary into a holiday. I remembered how in 2001 at the Literature and Cinema Festival in Gatchina he was awarded for a film about Pushkin. And since he personally could not receive the award, I brought it to Moscow. It was a samovar. Sergey came to the editorial office for him and arranged an enchanting concert for journalists, almost with a balalaika.

And he started with journalism. Born in the Tula region, he entered the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, filmed stories for television, published bulletins of the Association of Animated Films “Leaves” and the International Animation Festival “Krok”. Gradually came to directing. Since 1996, he began working at the Master-Film film company. In 1999 he made his first cartoon. I was preparing for the second game project, but life decreed otherwise.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29071 dated July 17, 2023

Newspaper headline:
The tragic death of the author of “animation”