Yakov PROTAZANOV
Яков ПРОТАЗАНОВ
Yakov PROTAZANOV
USSR, 1928, 67mn 
Black and white, silent, fiction
The White Eagle
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Белый орел / Губернатор

 

 L'Aigle blanc

 Bely oriol (Gubernator)

Other titles : The Lash of the Czar
 
Directed by : Yakov PROTAZANOV (Яков ПРОТАЗАНОВ)
Writing credits : Oleg LEONIDOV (Олег ЛЕОНИДОВ), Yakov PROTAZANOV (Яков ПРОТАЗАНОВ), Yakov URINOV (Яков УРИНОВ)
Based on The Governor, a play by Leonid Andreyev.
 
Cast
Aleksandr CHISTIAKOV (Александр ЧИСТЯКОВ)
Ivan CHUVELEV (Иван ЧУВЕЛЕВ)
Aleksandr GROMOV (Александр ГРОМОВ)
Vasili KACHALOV (Василий КАЧАЛОВ) ...Le gouverneur
Vsevolod MEYERHOLD (Всеволод МЕЙЕРХОЛЬД) ...Le haut fonctionnaire
Piotr REPNIN (Пётр РЕПНИН)
Anna STEN (Анна СТЭН) ...La gouvernante
Mikhail ZHAROV (Михаил ЖАРОВ)
 
Cinematography : Piotr ERMOLOV (Пётр ЕРМОЛОВ)
Production design : Isaac RABINOVICH (Исаак РАБИНОВИЧ)
Production : Mejrabpomfilm (Межрабпомфильм)
 

Plot synopsis
Lash of the Czar was one of several English-language titles for the Russian film Belyi Orel. The film was based on The Governor, a play by Leonid Andreyev. V.I. Kachalov plays the governor of a small Russian province who tries to treat the people under his authority with kindness and equanimity. But when a local factory goes on strike, the governor buckles under to pressure from the Czar and orders the wholesale slaughter of the strikers. He pays for this betrayal of his trust with his life -- at the hands of a courageous Bolshevik spy. Anna Sten, who in 1934 was brought to the U.S. as Sam Goldwyn's "answer" to Greta Garbo, appears as the governor's wife.
Hal Erickson, www.allmovie.com
 

Commentaries
Les origines du cinéma soviétique : un regard neuf, Myriam TSIKOUNAS, Cerf, 1992
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- The Golden Age of Soviet Cinema : 1924-1930, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023
- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2004
- Berlin International Film Festival : Berlinale, Berlin (Germany), 1982