Born to Jewish parents and raised in a Moscow suburb, Yuri Norstein painted as a hobby and trained as a carpenter before studying animation. He directed his first film in 1968 and made a series of short films notable for their attention to atmosphere and fine detail, using a multiplane camera to create the illusion of three-dimensional depth. His 1979 film, 'Tale of Tales' was acclaimed by a panel of international animation experts as the best animated film of all time. Since then, he has worked on an adaptation of Gogol's 'The Overcoat', which has been beset by production and funding problems.