An almost impossibly lovely, bejeweled fantasy adventure, a mixture of Ptushko’s THE STONE FLOWER and SADKO with Cocteau’s BEAUTY & THE BEAST. A ship’s captain promises his youngest daughter Nastenka (voiced by Nina Krachkovskaya) a scarlet flower as a gift. But when he plucks it, the enraged beast who owns it demands a sacrifice – and Nastenka offers herself up as the monster’s prisoner on an enchanted isle.Read More »
The film features life of Soviet country in the 20-s. The story is focused on the character of a major party leader. The film was inspired by life and activities of Bolshevik leader Sergei Kirov (1886 — 1934).Read More »
Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote:
The first sound film by Boris Barnet, one of the least seen and appreciated masters of the Russian cinema, this 1933 feature follows the impact of World War I on a village. Barnet takes nothing for granted, using sound as no one else had before or since and in the process reinventing the way we experience silence as well as sound. His view of war is expressed in uncanny emotional registers: scenes that begin tragically end comically and vice versa, and one of the more touching story lines involves a woman who falls in love with a German prisoner. Adapted by Barnet and Konstantin Finn from Finn’s novel, this is strong and indelible.Read More »
(kinoglaz.fr)
On the first day of the war fascists brutally killed the little son of a peasant woman Praskovya Lukyanova before the mother’s eyes. Her husband was also killed. Praskovya leaves the village. She goes to woods, organizes a partisan detachment and takes vengeance on the enemy.
The film was restored at the Gorky Film Studio in 1966.
The authors of the film were honored the Stalin’s Prize of the USSR.Read More »