David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg — director with roots in the Russian Empire

David Cronenberg is one of cinema's great original voices, the creator of a distinctive body of work — Videodrome, The Fly, Naked Lunch, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises — that explores the intersection of flesh, technology, and identity. He effectively invented the body horror genre.

Tracing the roots — Canada

Born in Toronto in 1943 to parents whose families came from Lithuania and Russia (Russian Empire), Cronenberg grew up in a Jewish immigrant household. The Jewish preoccupation with the body — its vulnerability, its mutation, its meaning — runs directly through his entire filmography.

A career defined by ambition