Khitruk was born in
Tver (
Russian Empire), into a Jewish family.[3][4] He came to
Moscow to study graphic design at the OGIS College for Applied Arts. He graduated in 1936 and started to work with
Soyuzmultfilm in 1938 as an animator. From 1962 onwards, he worked as a director. His first film The Story of a Crime was an immense success. Today, this film is seen as the beginning of a renaissance of
Soviet animation after a two-decade-long life in the shadows of
Socialist realism.[5]
Diverging from the “naturalistic” Disney-like canons that were reigning in the 1950-60s in Soviet animated cartoons, he created his own style, which was laconic yet multi-level, non-trivial and vivid.
He is the director of outstanding animated short films including such classics as his social satire of bureaucrats, Chelovek v ramke (The Man in the Frame) (1966), the philosophic parable, Ostrov (Island) (1973) about the loneliness of a man in modern society, the biographical film Ein Junger Mann namens Engels - Ein Portrait in Briefen (1970), based on drawings and letters of young
Engels, the parody Film, Film, Film (1968), and the anti-war film, Lev i byk (The Lion and the Bull) (1984).
In 2008, he released a two-volume book titled The Profession of Animation (
Russian: Профессия – аниматор). He is the grandfather of violin virtuoso
Anastasia Khitruk.
Khitruk lived in Moscow, where he died in 2012, aged 95.
International Short Film Festival in Kraków - Grand Prix "Golden Dragon of Wawel", Cash Prize, Diploma SIDALK for "The Island" (1974)
Cannes Film Festival — Special Jury Prize (the main competition of short films), the film "I Grant You A Star" (1975)
USSR State Prize — the film "Winnie the Pooh", "Winnie-the-Pooh Goes on a Visit", "Winnie-the-Pooh and the Day of Concern", "I Grant You A Star", "Island", "Film, film, film!" (1976)
USSR State Prize — animation film "O Sport, You the World!" 1982
International Film Festival "Cinanima" in Espinho — Honorary Diploma in the category of films from 3 to 12 minutes for the movie "The Lion and the Bull" (1983)
International Short Film Festival in Tampere — "For the mastery of the classical style of animation" for the film "The Lion and the Bull" (1983)