''Vast is my Native Land'' (

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

), also known as ''Great is my Country'' ( rus, Широка страна моя родная, r=Shiroka strana moya rodnaya) was the first film shot in the Soviet

wide-screen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

film format known as

Kinopanorama Kinopanorama is a three-lens, three-film widescreen film format. Although Kinopanorama was initially known as ''Panorama'' (russian: панорамный фильм, ''panoramnyy film'') in the Soviet Union the name was later revised to include it ...

. The title was taken from the song of the same name by the

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

composer Isaac Dunaevsky, which is featured in the film. The film was directed by Roman Karmen, known for various

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

s produced in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. The music was composed by

Kirill Molchanov Kirill Vladimirovich Molchanov (russian: Кирилл Владимирович Молчанов; 7 September 1922 – 14 March 1982) was a Russian and Soviet composer. He was appointed director of the Bolshoi, at the time political disfavour had ...

, a noted composer of music for

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

and

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

. The

Sovcolor An Agfacolor slide dated 1937 from café in Oslo, Norway. An Agfacolor slide dated 1937 from Paris, France. An Agfacolor slide dated 1938 from Hungary. An Agfacolor slide dated 1938 from Zakopane in Poland. An Agfacolor slide dated 1938 fr ...

film, which is 90-minutes in length, was premièred on 28 February 1958 at the Mir Kino Theatre in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. The film was screened throughout the USSR. An edited version of the film was screened In June and July, 1958, at the Mayfair Theatre in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in conjunction with Soviet Trade Exhibition at the New York Coliseum. The film was released in France on 12 May 1961 as ''Conquerors of the Sea'' (russian: Покорители моря, Pokoriteli morya).

External links

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''New York Times'' review
1959 films Soviet documentary films {{documentary-film-stub Soviet propaganda films