Stachka (1925)

A group of oppressed factory workers go on strike in pre-revolutionary Russia.

Director:

Sergei M. Eisenstein (as S. Eisenstein)

Writers:

Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Sergei M. Eisenstein

Stars:

Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Maksim Shtraukh, Mikhail Gomorov

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Maksim Shtraukh	...	Police Spy
Grigoriy Aleksandrov	...	Factory Foreman
Mikhail Gomorov	...	Worker
I. Ivanov	...	Chief of Police
Ivan Klyukvin	...	Revolutionary
Aleksandr Antonov	...	Member of Strike Committee
Yudif Glizer	...	Queen of Thieves
Anatoliy Kuznetsov
Vera Yanukova
Vladimir Uralskiy	...	(as V. Uralsky)
M. Mamin
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Boris Yurtsev	...	King of Thieves

Storyline

In Russia's factory region during Czarist rule, there's restlessness and strike planning among workers; management brings in spies and external agents. When a worker hangs himself after being falsely accused of thievery, the workers strike. At first, there's excitement in workers' households and in public places as they develop their demands communally. Then, as the strike drags on and management rejects demands, hunger mounts, as does domestic and civic distress. Provocateurs recruited from the lumpen and in league with the police and the fire department bring problems to the workers; the spies do their dirty work; and, the military arrives to liquidate strikers.

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Plot Keywords:

communist propaganda | strike | factory | spy | working | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

First feature film directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein.

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Goofs

The story is set in 1903. Throughout the film automobiles from the 1920s appear on streets. One is the 1920s auto that the worker (who stole the administrators' posted reply to workers' demands) tried to use to escape police goons during a nighttime rainstorm; when upper class women appear, they are wearing contemporary 1920s fashions, and the popular music that's on the sound track is also from the 1920s.

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Quotes

Activist #3: Enough of patience! Let's go out on a strike, comrades. Into the fight!

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Connections

Featured in Reputations: Hitch: Alfred the Great (1999)

User Reviews

A visual wonder, a dramatic masterpiece

Never in a silent picture have I seen political issues juxtaposed with astonishing camera work to the effect seen here. Eisenstein has created a moving work with breathtaking surrealist images. The end result is a sincerely affecting piece of drama and a palette of images far ahead of its time.

A must-see. A masterpiece.

Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

None

Release Date:

1961 (USA)

Also Known As:

La grève

Company Credits

Production Co:

1-ya Goskino Fabrika, Goskino, Proletkult

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min 94 min (DVD special edition)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1