Lithuanian film director, screenwriter. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1980). People's Artist of the Lithuanian SSR (1981). In 1948-1950 studied at Kaunas University. In 1956 he graduated from the directing department of VGIK (workshop of M.E. Chiaureli). As his diploma work he directed the short film "The Drowned Man" (1957, based on the short story by P. Zvirki). Already in this tape showed the interest of Žalakiavičiusa to the historical past of Lithuania, the native literature, the traditions of the national worldview. Although later on Zhalakyavichyus himself did not screen works of Lithuanian literature, he wrote many scripts for other directors - "Feelings" (1968, based on the novel "Devil's Ridge" by E. Liv) A. Grikyavichyusa and A. Dausa, "Let there be life!" (1970) by A. Grikevičius, "Devil's Seed" (1980, based on short stories by P. Cvirka) by A. Puipa, "Fact" (1981) by A. Grikevičius, the TV series "Marius" (1990, based on the novel "Haymaking" by K. Almenas) by J. Paculis. Pakulis with the participation of M. Gedris. These films, as well as Žalakkevičius' own films Adam Wants to Be a Man (1959), the short story "Living Heroes" in the 1960 film of the same name, Chronicle of One Day (1963) and Sunday in Hell (1988, with the participation of A. Grikevičius and A. Kvirikashvili), reflect the problem of self-identification of the Lithuanian people as a whole and its individual representatives, especially in moments of historical trials. But the director did not confine himself to Lithuania. He shot pictures about political metamorphoses in Latin America ("This sweet word - freedom!", 1973, the main prize of the Moscow Film Festival; "Centaurs", 1979), screened works of world literature, in which the analysis of human passions is combined with revealing the underlying causes of people's behavior in a purely private life or in their socio-political hypostasis ("Accident", 1974, based on F. Dürrenmatt; "The Telling of a Story", 1979). Dürrenmat; "The Tale of an Unknown Man", 1981, based on Anton Chekhov; "The Story of the Unquenched Moon", 1990, script based on the story by B.A. Pilnyak, staged by E.V. Tsymbal; "The Beast Coming Out of the Sea", 1992, based on the story "Flood" by E.I. Zamyatin). Sometimes feeling his own unrealized, Zhalakyavichyus was inclined to self-irony ("Excuse Me, Please", 1983) or to a more dramatic perception of an unfulfilled life (the film script "Confession of His Wife" by A. Grikyavichyus, 1984). Being the artistic director of the Lithuanian Film Studio in 1961-1975 and throughout the 1980s, he did a lot for the formation of the national film school. In 1974-1980 Zhalakiavicius lived in Moscow, worked at Mosfilm, and taught at the Higher Scriptwriting Courses. In the history of cinematography Zhalakyavichyus will remain as the creator of the best Lithuanian film - "Nobody Wanted to Die" (1966, State Prize of the USSR for 1967). Elements of adventure genre, ideological accents in the dramatic story about the post-war Lithuanian village, when the Soviet power had to finish off the "forest brothers", do not prevent the presence in the film of ambiguous and historically ambivalent meaning - the initial contradiction of personal and social, individuality and system acquires in Jalakkevicius existential insolubility. This film brought all-union fame to a number of Lithuanian actors - Donatas Banionis, Regimantas Adomaitis, Juozas Budraitis, Laimonas Noreika, cameraman Jonas Gritsius.
