Valentin Belonogov

Valentin Belonogov was born in 1949 in Izberbash

Belonogov was born on 4 January 1949 in Izberbash, in Dagestan in the Soviet Union, to a family of Second World War veterans. He grew up on the Caspian coast. As a schoolboy he became interested in photography and shot short items for local television.

He studied cinematography at the VGIK film institute in Moscow under professor Boris Volchek and graduated in 1975. While still a student he shot documentaries in Dagestan.

From the mid-1970s he was a staff cinematographer at the Moldova-Film studio in Chișinău. His films there include Agent of the Secret Service in 1978 and Gobsek in 1987, based on Balzac. He joined the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR in 1978.

After immigrating to Israel he shot feature, documentary and television works, starting with Cafe with Lemon in 1994. He later shot Saint Clara, Yana's Friends and Broken Wings, and won the Ophir Award in 1999 and 2002. He taught cinematography at Tel Aviv University and Sapir Academic College and worked for Channel 9 in the 2010s.

He was married to Tonya, and they had one daughter, Miri. He died of cancer in Tel Aviv on 30 October 2024 and was buried at Yarkon Cemetery.