Nureyev's passion for the cinema stemmed from his early childhood days: in Oufa, he frequently went to the cinema to watch the Soviet and foreign films that were being projected. This is were he discovered the films by Rudolph Valentino.

His debut in the cinema is best portrayed by two films: "Valentino" by Ken Russel in 1977 en "Exposed" by James Toback in 1982...

His career was inspired by
three of the most extraordinary conductors
of the 20th century: Karl Böhm, Herbert
von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein...