Born in Kazakhstan, in an exiled family, Susanna moved to Rostov-on-Don, Russia, in 1954, where she graduated as a journalist. Later she worked in Armenian press, also with scripts and books by Sergei Paradzhanov, Artavazd Peleshian and Andrei Sakharov. In 1990s she worked on Rostov TV and became a co-author of filmmaker Alexander Rastorguev with whom she made over 20 documentary projects, including Clean Thursday (2002), Wild Wild Beach (2007), I Love You (2011), I Don't Love You (2012).