MOSCOW, June 16. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the farewell ceremony for renowned Russian filmmaker, Stanislav Govorukhin at the Transfiguration Church of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow on Saturday.

Talking to reporters after the ceremony the President called Stanislav Govorukhin a great artist and a true patriot and compared his creative work with the work of a conductor of a large symphony orchestra.

"Today is a sad, funeral day when we say goodbye to Stanislav Sergeyevich Govorukhin, the man millions of our citizens know and love first of all for his work, for his cult films," the President said.

"As, ordinary spectators, and I am one of them and now I would like to say on their behalf, we look at the screen, watch enjoy acting of our beloved actors, we are carried away by the plot, and as a rule, we do not remember the person who remains outside the camera view. But this is he, the director, who, as a conductor of a large symphony orchestra, chooses the script, selects actors, first of all the soloists, makes the instruments sound great," the President said adding that that Govorukhin "knew how to do it brilliantly" and that he was "a real great artist."

Putin recalled that he became closely acquainted with the director in late 2011, when Govorukhin headed his presidential election headquarters.

"It was a great pleasure and a great honor for me personally to meet Stanislav Sergeyevich," the President said.

"It was not his administrative and political support but his moral support that was important to me," he added.

Stanislav Govorukhin died on June 14 at the age of 82.

As a filmmaker Govorukhin was known for his successful adaptations of adolescent classics, including Robinson Crusoe (1973), Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1981), And Then There Were None (1987 - an adaptation of Agatha Christie's original 1939).

In 1979, he directed The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed, one of the cult films of the late Soviet era. Govorukhin was a member of Russia’s State Duma since 1993. He was the Chairman of the State Duma’s Culture committee.

The farewell ceremony will last until 1:00 pm Moscow time. After that the burial service will be held. The director will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery.