Timur Bekmambetov

Production

Timur Bekmambetov

Born 1961-06-25 · Guryev, Kazakh SSR, USSR [now Atyrau, Kazakhstan]

Timur Bekmambetov is a Kazakh-Russian filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter best known for directing Night Watch and Wanted, as well as pioneering the modern screenlife format. Through films including Unfriended, Searching, Profile, and Missing, Bekmambetov helped establish screenlife storytelling as a major evolution of found footage and digital-era horror. His work popularized films told entirely through computer screens, video calls, and mobile devices, influencing a new generation of internet-native thriller and horror filmmaking.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

War of the Worlds poster
4.0

Will Radford is a top analyst for Homeland Security who tracks potential threats through a mass surveillance program, until one day an attack by an unknown entity leads him to question whether the government is hiding something from him... and from the rest of the world.

War of the Worlds

2025

Mercy poster
7.1

In the near future, a detective stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has ninety minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced AI Judge he once championed, before it determines his fate.

Mercy

2026

Mercy poster
7.1

In the near future, a detective stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has ninety minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced AI Judge he once championed, before it determines his fate.

Mercy

2026

Wanted poster
6.5

Doormat Wesley Gibson is an office worker whose life is going nowhere. He meets an attractive woman named Fox and discovers that his recently murdered father - whom Wesley never knew - belonged to the Fraternity, a secret society of assassins which takes its orders from Fate itself. Fox and Sloan, the Fraternity's leader, teach Wesley, through intense training, to tap into dormant powers and hone his innate killing skills. Though he enjoys his newfound abilities, he begins to suspect that there is more to the Fraternity than meets the eye.

Wanted

2008

9 poster
7.0

When 9 first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good.

9

2009

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter poster
5.8

President Lincoln's mother is killed by a supernatural creature, which fuels his passion to crush vampires and their slave-owning helpers.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

2012

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter poster
5.8

President Lincoln's mother is killed by a supernatural creature, which fuels his passion to crush vampires and their slave-owning helpers.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

2012

Searching poster
7.6

After David Kim's 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later and without a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter's laptop.

Searching

2018

LifeHack poster
7.1

Four teenage slackers attempt a multi-million-dollar Bitcoin heist from their bedrooms, only to spiral into the darkest corners of the internet - and a danger beyond their computer screens.

LifeHack

2026

Ben-Hur poster
5.8

A falsely accused nobleman survives years of slavery to take vengeance on his best friend who betrayed him.

Ben-Hur

2016

Hardcore Henry poster
6.4

Henry, a newly resurrected cyborg who must save his wife/creator from the clutches of a psychotic tyrant with telekinetic powers, AKAN, and his army of mercenaries. Fighting alongside Henry is Jimmy, who is Henry's only hope to make it through the day. Hardcore Henry takes place over the course of one day, in Moscow, Russia.

Hardcore Henry

2015

The Darkest Hour poster
5.3

In Moscow, five young people lead the charge against an alien race which has attacked Earth via our power supply.

The Darkest Hour

2011

The Current War poster
6.7

Electricity titans Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse compete to create a sustainable system and market it to the American people.

The Current War

2018

Apollo 18 poster
5.3

Officially, Apollo 17 was the last manned mission to the moon. But a year later in 1973, three American astronauts were sent on a secret mission to the moon funded by the US Department of Defense. What you are about to see is the actual footage which the astronauts captured on that mission. While NASA denies its authenticity, others say it's the real reason we've never gone back to the moon.

Apollo 18

2011

Unfriended: Dark Web poster
6.3

​When a 20-something finds a cache of hidden files on his new laptop, he and his friends are unwittingly thrust into the depths of the dark web. They soon discover someone has been watching their every move and will go to unimaginable lengths to protect the dark web.

Unfriended: Dark Web

2018

Night Watch poster
6.2

Among normal humans live the "Others" possessing various supernatural powers. They are divided up into the forces of light and the forces of the dark, who signed a truce several centuries ago to end a devastating battle. Ever since, the forces of light govern the day while the night belongs to their dark opponents. In modern day Moscow the dark Others actually roam the night as vampires while a "Night Watch" of light forces, among them Anton, the movie's protagonist, try to control them and limit their outrage

Night Watch

2004

Night Watch poster
6.2

Among normal humans live the "Others" possessing various supernatural powers. They are divided up into the forces of light and the forces of the dark, who signed a truce several centuries ago to end a devastating battle. Ever since, the forces of light govern the day while the night belongs to their dark opponents. In modern day Moscow the dark Others actually roam the night as vampires while a "Night Watch" of light forces, among them Anton, the movie's protagonist, try to control them and limit their outrage

Night Watch

2004

Unfriended poster
5.6

While video chatting one night, six high school friends receive a Skype message from a classmate who killed herself exactly one year ago. At first they think it's a prank, but when the girl starts revealing the friends' darkest secrets, they realize they are dealing with something out of this world, something that wants them dead.

Unfriended

2014

Black Lightning poster
6.3

A Moscow University student discovers that his otherwise unremarkable car can fly. After his father is attacked, he decides to use the car to fight crime and becomes the city's defender against an evil millionaire.

Black Lightning

2009

Day Watch poster
6.1

A man who serves in the war between the forces of Light and Dark comes into possession of a device that can restore life to Moscow, which was nearly destroyed by an apocalyptic event.

Day Watch

2006

Day Watch poster
6.1

A man who serves in the war between the forces of Light and Dark comes into possession of a device that can restore life to Moscow, which was nearly destroyed by an apocalyptic event.

Day Watch

2006

I Am Dragon poster
7.2

In the midst of the wedding princess Miroslava is kidnapped by a dragon and carried away into his castle on the remote island. Mira left everything behind in the past - family, friends and groom. Now the only things she had were a stone cage and a mysterious young man named Arman ... but who is he and what is he doing on that island? Miroslava will know the truth too late: loving a dragon will reveal the bitter truth - love is scary.

I Am Dragon

2015

Persian Lessons poster
7.6

Occupied France, 1942. Gilles is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to Head of Camp Koch, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Through an ingenious trick, Gilles manages to survive by inventing words of "Farsi" every day and teaching them to Koch.

Persian Lessons

2020

The Snow Queen poster
5.9

The Snow Queen creates a world of eternal winter, frosting human souls and emotions. When she turns Kai, the son of a wizard, into an ice statue, his sister embarks on a journey to save him and bring life back to the world.

The Snow Queen

2012