Bezhin lug (1937)

A Soviet farmer's son, who is working at a Kolchos is killed by his father, who wants to burn the fields of the Kolchos to damage the Soviet Society.

Director:

Sergei M. Eisenstein

Writers:

Isaak Babel, Sergei M. Eisenstein

Stars:

Viktor Kartashov, Nikolay Khmelyov, Pyotr Arzhanov

Cast

Credited cast:
Viktor Kartashov	...	Stepok (as Vitya Kartashov)
Nikolay Khmelyov	...	Peasant
Pyotr Arzhanov	...	Political Commissioner (as Pavel Ardzhanov)
Yekaterina Teleshova	...	President of Kolkhoz
Nikolai Maslov	...	Arsonist
Yakov Zajtsev
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Stanislav Rostotskiy	...	Boy
Boris Zakhava	...	Stepok's Father

Storyline

A Soviet farmer's son, who is working at a Kolchos is killed by his father, who wants to burn the fields of the Kolchos to damage the Soviet Society.

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Plot Keywords:

father | anti clericalism | homoerotic fight | homoeroticism | controversy | 

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Genres:

Short | Drama

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Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Release Date:

1937 (Soviet Union)

Also Known As:

Bezhin Meadow

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gosudarstvennoe Upravlenie Kinematografii (GUK)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

31 min (reconstructed) 31 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Production was stopped by Soviet officials in 1937. Sergei M. Eisenstein had spent two years filming and had up to three different completed versions. The footage that had been shot up to that point was taken to a film storage vault, which was destroyed in a German bombing raid during the war. The film was alleged to have also been destroyed at this time; however, the government is thought to have destroyed it earlier on. Eisenstein, though, saved two frames from the beginning and end of all of his shots and in the mid-'60s these were put together according to script, story board and notes for a 31-minute reconstruction of film stills.

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Connections

Featured in Histoire(s) du cinéma: Toutes les histoires (1989)

User Reviews

A tragic loss

This retelling of a classic Communist, collectivist tale is one of the greatest losses to Communism the cinematic world has felt. Destroyed by the Soviets along with several other banned films, restoration artists were able to, more or less successfully, piece the story together again, from the damaged original negative, as a series of stills and a rehashed set of intertitles. The dynamism that must have accompanied the moving images of this film has, unfortunately been lost, but the stills themselves are fantastic, and a great tribute to Eisenstein's art.