In 1981 he graduated from Translation Faculty of Gorky Teachers’ Training University. From 1983 to 1987 Aleksei Balabanov worked as an assistant of a film director at Sverdlovsk film studio. Later Balabanov studied at the experimental course “Authors’ Cinema” of the High Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors, graduating in 1990.
Balabanov started his creative career in “big cinema” in 1991 with directing his first full-length feature "Shchastlivyye dni" (Happy Days) after his own script. In the same year he became the co-author of the script "Pogranichniy Conflict" (Frontier Conflict) by the young film director Nadezhda Khvorova.
Aleksei Balabanov is best known for the 1997 crime film "Brat" (Brother), and its more action-oriented sequel, "Brat-2" (Brother 2), both of which starred the late Sergei Bodrov Jr. as a novice hit man. The second film, along with its soundtrack, was immensely popular in Russia. Recently, however, he has become better known for his shocking and controversial films "Gruz 200" (Cargo 200) (2007) and "Morphine" (2008).
