Mikhail ROMM
Михаил РОММ
Mikhaïl ROMM
USSR, 1936, 87mn 
Black and white, fiction
Thirteen
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Тринадцать

 

 Les Treize

 Trinadtsat

 
Directed by : Mikhail ROMM (Михаил РОММ)
Writing credits : Iosif PRUT (Иосиф ПРУТ), Mikhail ROMM (Михаил РОММ)
 
Cast
Aleksandr CHISTIAKOV (Александр ЧИСТЯКОВ) ...Le géologue
Andrey FAIT (Андрей ФАЙТ) ...L'officier Skouratov
Nikolay KRIUCHKOV (Николай КРЮЧКОВ)
Stepan KRYLOV (Степан КРЫЛОВ) ...Jourba
Viktor KULAKOV (Виктор КУЛАКОВ) ...Balandine
Yelena KUZMINA (Елена КУЗЬМИНА) ...Maria Nikolaevna
Ivan KUZNETSOV (Иван КУЗНЕЦОВ)
Pyotr MASOKHA (Пётр МАСОХА) ...Sviridenko
Ivan NOVOSELTSEV (Иван НОВОСЕЛЬЦЕВ)
 
Cinematography : Boris VOLCHEK (Борис ВОЛЧЕК)
Production design : Mikhail KARYAKIN (Михаил КАРЯКИН), Vladimir YEGOROV (Владимир ЕГОРОВ)
Music : Anatoli ALEKSANDROV (Анатолий АЛЕКСАНДРОВ)
Sound : Vyacheslav LESHCHEV (Вячеслав ЛЕЩЕВ)
Production : Mosfilm
Spectators : 20 millions of spectators
Restauration : 1985
 
Site : IMDb

Plot synopsis
About a heroic deed of thirteen Soviet frontier guards who are killed in a battle with a numerous band of basmatches. The scene is laid in the 20s.
Source : www.mosfilm.ru
 

Commentaries and bibliography
Neuf films russes «clonés» par Hollywood, Anna NEKHAÏEVA, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2023
Тринадцать : киносценарий, Iosif PRUT, Mikhail ROMM, Кинофотиздать, 1936
 
The only Red Western from the 1930s, the darkest period of Stalin’s years of terror, with a fascinating influence of silent cinema from the 1920s, and the earliest sound experiments. Made by Mikhael Romm, who later became a (propaganda) master of socialist realism.
Red Army commander Ivan Zhuravlev accompanies ten honourably discharged soldiers on their way to the city. In the middle of the Karakum Desert they stumble upon a hidden well located near an ancient tomb. They also find brand-new weapons belonging to Shirmat Khan and his anti-Bolshevik bandits, the so-called basmachi. Zhuravlev gives orders to wait for Shirmat Khan and fight him until regular Red Army troops arrive. The Thirteen is one of the most remarkable Civil War thrillers in Soviet cinema. Dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Red Army, its story was inspired by John Ford’s The Lost Patrol (1934). The film’s well-paced adventure plot and psychological plausibility meet the highest international standards.
The heroism in Romm’s film is of an unspectacular kind - no wounds are shown, no cries are heard. This understated pathos is unusual for Soviet cinema in the 1930s and has secured the film's freshness and enduring appeal.
(http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/films/trinadtsat/)

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam (Netherlands), 2011
- Era New Horizons IFF, Wroclaw (Poland), 2011

Photos and videos
 




Film avec sous-titres anglais