Zemlya (1930)

Director:

Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Writer:

Aleksandr Dovzhenko (writer)

Release Date:

17 October 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In the peaceful countryside, Vassily opposes the rich kulaks over the coming of collective farming.

Plot Keywords:

Urination Scene | Collectivization | Farm | Propaganda | Bread

Cast

Stepan Shkurat	...	Opanas (as S. Shkurat)
Semyon Svashenko	...	Vasili 'Basil' Opanas (as S. Svashenko)
Yuliya Solntseva	...	Vasili's sister (as Yu. Solntseva)
Yelena Maksimova	...	Natalya, Vasili's fiancee (as Ye. Maksimova)
Nikolai Nademsky	...	Semyon 'Simon' Opanas (as N. Nademsky)
Ivan Franko	...	Arkhip Whitehorse, Khoma's father (as I. Franko)
Pyotr Masokha	...	Khoma 'Thomas' Whitehorse (as P. Masokha)
Vladimir Mikhajlov	...	Village priest (as V. Mikhajlov)
Pavel Petrik	...	Young party-cell leader (as P. Petrik)
P. Umanets	...	Chairman of the village Farm Soviet
Ye. Bondina	...	Farm girl
Luka Lyashenko	...	Young Kulak (as L. Lyashenko)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
V. Krasenko	...	Old Peter (uncredited)
M. Matsyutsia	...	Farm girl (uncredited)
Nikolai Mikhajlov	...	The Pope (uncredited)

Directed by
Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Aleksandr Dovzhenko		writer

Original Music by
Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov		(1971) (as V. Ovchinnikov)
Lev Revutsky		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Daniil Demutsky

Film Editing by
Aleksandr Dovzhenko		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Vasili Krichevsky

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lazar Bodik	....	assistant director
Yuliya Solntseva	....	assistant director

Music Department
Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov	....	conductor (1971 restored version) (as V. Ovchinnikov)

Other crew
Stephen P. Hill	....	intertitler: English (1975 version)

Production Companies

• Wufku

Distributors

• Amkino Corporation (1930) (USA) (theatrical) (English intertitles)
• Kino Video (1991) (USA) (video) (1971 'restoration' with 1975 English intertitles)
• Image Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Kino Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Grapevine Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• absolut MEDIEN (2006) (Germany) (DVD)
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1977) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Punto Zero (2007) (Italy) (DVD)
• Video Yesteryear (????) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Kino International  1991 us copyright author, video release
• Mosfilm  1971 restoration studio facilities
• The Eastin-Phelan Corp.  1975 copyright author, us subtitled version

Also Known As:

Земля (Soviet Union: Russian title)
Earth (USA)
Soil
Erde (Germany) [de]
Jorden (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Maa (Finland) [fi]
Terra (Brazil) [pt]
Terre, La (France) [fr]
Tierra, La (Spain) [es]
Zemlja (France) (alternative transliteration) [fr]

Runtime:

75 min | USA:73 min (1991 Kino video)

Country:

Soviet Union

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (1956) | Finland:S (1972)

Company:

Wufku

Trivia:

This film was voted one of the ten greatest films of all time by a group of 117 film historians at the 1958 Brussels World Fair.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Life as a Dream (2007) (V)

Earth

Dovzhenko was a 'modernist' who drew deepest inspiration from traditional arts. His ode to the beginning of the collectivization is actually an orgy of intoxicant pictures of bulging clouds, waving wheat fields, ripening fruits and pelting horses.

The arrival of a tractor is hailed by the farmers. They begin to believe that an improved life has started, but Kulaks murder the young leader of the village party committee. This only encourages the village inhabitants in their resoluteness. In a sublime finale sequence, Dovzhenko unites birth, death, harvest, technical progress and solidarity, when the dead is returned to Earth that he loved so much.

No abstract summary can do justice to the extraordinary sensualism of this remarkable film. Whoever searches for the roots of Andrei Tarkovsky's cinema has to start with "Zemlya".