Julia Loktev (born December 12, 1969) is a Russian-American film director and video artist. She was born in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now St. Petersburg, Russia). Loktev came across Tom Bishell's book of short stories God Lives in St. Petersburg and read it because she had been born in St. Petersburg. She decided to adapt the short story Expensive Trips Nowhere into the film The Loneliest Planet transporting the setting from Kazakhstan to Georgia.[3] Loktev was resident at Eyebeam in 2005.[4] In 2015, Richard Brody called her one of the best woman movie directors.