His first success came with a movie '' A Home for Tanya '' directed by Lev Kulidzhanov in 1959 . Seen by 25.2 million people at the time of release , it competed for the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival . His next screenplay was made into '' A Simple Story '' movie by the director Yuri Egorov and released in 1960 to even a greater success : with 46.8 million viewers it became one of the box office leaders and the 48th most popular Soviet movie of all time . It featured an ensemble cast of the acclaimed Russian actors : Nonna Mordyukova , Mikhail Ulyanov and Vasily Shukshin . Mordyukova 's character was partly inspired by her own personality and was written specially for her
1959 Cannes Film Festival
1959 Cannes Film Festival
Budimir Metalnikov