Natasha Nikitina (b. 1944, Moscow) is one of the pioneers of analogue special effects in Norwegian film and television. She trained at the Moscow Theatre Academy (1968–1972) and then spent 14 years at the Gorky Film Studio in Moscow. There she created special effects and sets for 32 feature films, including ship models for Peter the Great, windmill and aircraft models for The Young Gagarin and car and bridge models for Medal After Death.

In 1986 she moved to Oslo, where she married film editor Pål Gengenbach and became his close collaborator. From 1990 she was part of the core group at Studio Magica, alongside Gengenbach, Morten Skallerud, Lars Tømmerbakke and Pjotr Sapegin. It was Natasha who brought Sapegin into the group. Studio Magica was one of the most exciting animation studios in Norway in the 1990s, and Natasha was a partner there from 1995 to 2000.

Using models, glass paintings, multiplane, stop motion and in-camera double exposure, long before computers took over, she created visual effects for around 15 Norwegian films, for NRK drama, for commercials and for other productions. Her glass paintings created the snow and winter of Bak sju hav, which was shot in summer. For Kvitebjørn Kong Valemon(The Polar Bear King) she made the glass paintings, the flying witches and the magical apparitions. For the Pelle and Proffen film Giftige løgner she built the Høks Kjemiske Industrier factory that is blown up in the film, as a foreground model shot with double exposure. She also made the vanishing effects in Det perfekte mord, a crane model for Hermannand a model house for Landstrykere, and she worked on Bare skyer beveger stjernene (Only Clouds Move the Stars) and Fortuna.

For NRK director Morten Thomte she created the spaceship and outer space in the TV opera Gagarin – a Space Opera(1991), along with a plane crash in which parts of the aircraft come down in the forest. She also worked on Thomte’s Metropolis (1990), I begynnelsen var støyen (1993), Det omvendte måltid (1994), Chez toi (1995/96) and Ulykken (2009). In advertising she made effects with cinematographer Rolv Håan and director Hans Petter Moland, including films about rural post offices disappearing and about wind turbines. Several of the films she worked on have won international awards.

Natasha was one of Norway’s leading practitioners of glass painting and multiplane technique, and she inspired Anita Killi and others to animate on glass tables. She was also an important link to Russia and Eastern Europe for the Norwegian animation community, including for Gunnar Strøm and Kine Aune. She made her directing debut with Far, Far Away (Langt, langt borte, 1997), a poetic animated film that brings Theodor Kittelsen’s paintings to life. It was animated by Anita Killi at Trollfilm. Watch Natasha and Anita at Trollfilm in Dovre (NRK, 1996).