In my youth I used to be a little more obsessed about film composers (I used to work for one), but I've slacked in my film composer knowledge. Of course, I never kept up on my Soviet film composers (unless you count Shostakovich).
Here's a very short AP news release about Isaac Schwartz's death. Even better: YouTube has all of White Sun of the Desert (with English subtitles) in eighth parts. Enjoy! (And enjoy the music.)