Gleb Panfilov first worked as a factory foreman after graduating from the Urals Polytechnic Institute. After seeing Mikhail Kalatazov's "The Cranes Are Flying" (1957), he became interested in film and started a correspondence course at VGIK (the State Cinema Institute) in 1960. In 1968 Panfilov made his first feature film, "No Ford in the Fire", which also marked the beginning of an ongoing collaboration with his wife, Inna Churikova. The star of all his films, Churikova has been described as "a Russian Giulietta Masina" for her endearing, comic awkwardness.

In 1970, Panfilov made the