Alone (1931)
"Odna" (original title)

Directors:

Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg

Writers:

Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg

Stars:

Yelena Kuzmina, Pyotr Sobolevsky, Sergei Gerasimov

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Yelena Kuzmina	...	Elena, Lehrerin (as Y.Kuzmina)
Pyotr Sobolevsky	...	Petr, ihr Verlobter (as P. Sobolevsky)
Sergei Gerasimov	...	Le président du soviet local (as S. Gerasimov)
Mariya Babanova	...	Femme de président (as M. Babanova)
Liu-Sian Van	...	Bay, un riche koulak
Yanina Zhejmo	...	Jeune femme (as Y.Zhejmo)
Boris Chirkov	...	Telefonierender (as B. Chirkov)

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

mongolia | teacher | theremin | school

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Release Date:

1932 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alone

Company Credits

Production Co:

Soyuzkino

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min 90 min (TV premiere) (music restored) 82 min (1974) 90 min (2003 restration) 80 min (1966 restration)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

On the sound track there is "throat singing" at the point where the action shifts from the city to the Altai region. Also, later, authentic images and sounds of a shaman dancing, singing, and beating a drum to heal a sick woman.

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Connections

Featured in Fejezetek a film történetéböl: A szovjet hangosfilm 1930-1953 (1990)

User Reviews

The Beauty of Terrible Politics

Odna is a Soviet propaganda movie which inadvertently exposes the inhumanity of the system. Newly graduated teacher Yelena dreams of a life alongside her fiancé in Leningrad, but is assigned a teaching post in the remote Altai mountains of Russian Mongolia. She doesn't want to go, but is told that "teachers should be willing and able to contribute to the development of the socialist state, those who only seek personal happiness are enemies of Soviet power." (yes, that's a literal translation). So she goes away alone and her fiancé disappears from the movie like he disappears from her life.

In the Altai, she helps the natives, a barbaric, superstitious bunch of primitives, convert to the glories of Communism. In reality, the Mongolian nomads were forced at gunpoint into sedentary collective farms, many died during Stalin's purges and a great culture was all but destroyed.

The flip side to all this demagoguery is that, like many Russian films of that era, it is made with great artistry. It's a silent film with inventive editing, creative use of sound effects and a great score by Dmitri Shostakovich. You just wish all that talent was given a better cause.