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Q&A Film Director Mohy Quandour and Sochi Film Festival President Luba Balagova

By April 16th, 2021No Comments

MOHY QUANDOUR, Author, composer and film producer/director of Circassian origins, is a veteran filmmaker and author of historical novels published in the USA, the UK and translated into several other languages, including Russian, Arabic and Turkish.

Mohy Quandour combined his varied career between business and the creative fields, often interchanging between them over a period of many years. He began his business career in New York with J.W.T (Advertising films) and later with Bristol Myers International in New York. Later he became an established Consultant to many multinational organizations in Europe, the USA and Japan. He moved into the creative fields in television in New York with the MPO studios and then to Hollywood as a screenwriter and film director. His recent film productions include “Cherkess” 2010, “The Prisoner” 2012 and “A Facebook Romance” 2013. (Reference professional website: ?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Quandour is a novelist with 20 historical novels published in Europe, The Middle East, Russia and USA, all available on and Barns & Noble. His most popular literary works are ‘The Kavkas Trilogy’ (Bestseller in the Russian Federation), ‘Revolution’, ‘The Last Hunt’, and ‘Iraq-Desert Crossings’.
His latest publications include “Robina” 2013, “Family” 2014,“The Flying Cavalry-Story of Cherkess Ethem” 2014 AND “The Plot” story of Sultan Abdulhamid II 2015.

He is also a classical music composer whose recent works are published by Marimba Musikverlag in Munich, Germany and are being performed in Russia, Japan and in many European venues.

Quandour resides in Windsor, United Kingdom but travels extensively for research of his novels. He has a PhD in History and a Master of International Studies.

LUBA BALAGOVA

Luba Balagova is an award-winning Russian Circassian poet, author, filmmaker and producer. She has a Ph.D. in literature.
Born in Russia, currently a citizen of the United Kingdom where she resides with her husband and two sons. She has been active in the creative and literary world for the past thirty years, starting her poetic journey and filmmaking in Russia and continuing to cover various social and cultural initiatives throughout Europe, the US and the Middle East in her literary works and lectures.
Luba has written and published eleven poetry books and is best known for The Empress, a novel in verse exploring the life of the sixteenth century Circassia princess Maria Temrokovna, second wife of Ivan the Terrible of Russia.
She has produced several documentaries in Russia including the English-language Cherkess Journey, as well award-winning movies Cherkess (2010), Mountain Prisoner (2011) and A Facebook Romance (2012); a seventeen-minute promo for her latest feature film The Scent of Infinity, based on her award-winning script. Luba Balagova is one of the directors of London-based Sindika Productions, a film production company making award-winning international movies.
Luba was invited to join the jury for the Angel Film Awards at the 2012 Monaco International Film Festival (http://www.monacofilmfest.com/2013program/2013_press_release_home_print.php) in Monaco, as well as London’s international music competition Stars of Albion in 2014 in London and many others.