''Zvenigora'' (russian: Звeнигopа) is a 1928 Soviet silent film by Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko, first shown on 13 April 1928. This was the fourth film by Dovzhenko, but the first one which was widely reviewed and discussed in the media. This was also the last film by Dovzhenko for which he was not the sole scriptwriter.

Cast

Georgi Astafyev Georgi may refer to: * Georgi (given name) * Georgi (surname) See also *Georgy (disambiguation) *Georgii (disambiguation) Georgii may refer to: ;Given name *Georgii Zantaraia (born 1987), Ukrainian judoka of Georgian origin *Georgii Karpechenko ( ...

as Scythian leader (as G. Astafyev) *

Nikolai Nademsky Nikolai or Nikolay is an East Slavic variant of the masculine name Nicholas. It may refer to: People Royalty * Nicholas I of Russia (1796–1855), or Nikolay I, Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855 * Nicholas II of Russia (1868–1918), or Niko ...

as Grandpa / General *

Vladimir Uralsky Vladimir Mikhailovich Uralsky (russian: link=no, Владимир Миха́йлович Уральский) was a Soviet actor. Vladimir played in more than 100 films. Selected filmography * 1924 — ''Aelita'' * 1925 — ''Strike'' * 1925 � ...

as Peasant *

Aleksandr Podorozhny Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

as Pavlo - second grandson (as Les Podorozhnij) *

Semyon Svashenko Simeon () is a given name, from the Hebrew (Biblical ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian ''Šimʿôn''), usually transliterated as Shimon. In Greek it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon. Meaning The name is derived from Simeon, son ...

as Timoshka - first grandson * I. Selyuk as Ataman * L. Barné as Monk * L. Parshina as Timoshka's wife * P. Sklyar Otawa as Okasana - Mountain Princess * A. Simonov as Cossack Officer

Production

The script was originally written by Maike "Mike" Johansen and Yurtyk (Yuri Tiutiunnyk), but eventually Dovzhenko heavily rewrote the script himself and removed Johansen and Tyutyunnyk's names from the screenplay and did not include them in the film credits. Pavlo Nechesa, head of the Odessa film studio VUFKU ( uk, Одеська кінфабрика ВУФКУ) recalls: ″We were discussing the screenplay for Zvenigora … Almost everyone was against the script … Dovzhenko said ″I’ll take and make …″. As a project, Zvenigora got its start in June 1927.

Content

Regarded as a silent revolutionary

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and medi ...

, Dovzhenko's initial film in his ''Ukraine Trilogy'' (along with ''Arsenal'' and ''Earth'') is almost religious in tone, relating a millennium of Ukrainian history through the story of an old man who tells his grandson about a treasure buried in a mountain. The film mixes fiction and reality. Although Dovzhenko referred to ''Zvenigora'' as his "party membership card", the relationship between the individual and nature is the main theme of the film, which is highly atypical of the Soviet cinema of the end of the 1920s and its

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

influences. Dovzhenko states that full submission to nature made humanity powerless in the face of nature, and understanding and control of nature is required to make progress. For him, the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

brought about such an understanding.

Reception

At the time of release, the film was widely reviewed in the press but generally regarded as not conforming with Soviet aesthetics. In 1927, even before the film's release, the newspaper ''Kino'' (''Cinema'') sharply criticized the screenplay, calling it "

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

" and "nationalistic". In the 2012 Sight & Sound Director's Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time,

Guy Maddin Guy Maddin (born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter, director, author, cinematographer, and film editor of both features and short films, as well as an installation artist, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Since completing his first film in ...

placed it on his top ten list, describing the film as "mind-bogglingly eccentric!"

References

Bibliography

* ''Histoire du cinéma ukrainien (1896–1995)'', Lubomir Hosejko, Éditions à Dié, Dié, 2001, , traduit en ukrainien en 2005 : ''Istoria Oukraïnskovo Kinemotografa'', Kino-Kolo, Kiev, 2005,

External links

Zvenigora, Odessa Film Studios
* * * *Ray Uzwyshy

{{Alexander Dovzhenko 1928 drama films 1928 films Soviet black-and-white films Films directed by Alexander Dovzhenko Russian Civil War films Films set in Ukraine Odessa Film Studio Soviet silent feature films Soviet-era Ukrainian films All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration films Ukrainian black-and-white films Ukrainian silent feature films Soviet drama films Ukrainian drama films Silent drama films