Russian director Maksim Shishkin, born in 1989, lived in the Northern Urals until he was 20. He worked first as a television editor, then moved in 2013 to Kazakhstan where he began making short films, including kidnapping thriller Tough Choices for Romeo (2014) and The Last Track (2021) with rapper Alisher Morgenstern. In 2018, he moved to Moscow and began directing music videos.