Aleksandr DOVZHENKO
Александр ДОВЖЕНКО
Aleksandr DOVJENKO
Yulia SOLNTSEVA
Юлия СОЛНЦЕВА
Youlia SOLNTSEVA
USSR, 1927, 65mn 
Black and white, silent, fiction
Zvenigora
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Звенигора

 

 Zvenigora

 Zvenigora

Russian subtitle : Заколдованное место (Lieu enchanté)
 
Directed by : Aleksandr DOVZHENKO (Александр ДОВЖЕНКО), Yulia SOLNTSEVA (Юлия СОЛНЦЕВА)
Writing credits : Mike IOGANSON (Майк ИОГАНСОН), Yuri TYUTYUNIK (Юрий ТЮТЮНИК)
 
Cast
Georgi ASTAFYEV (Георгий АСТАФЬЕВ) ...Le chef des Scythes
Nikolay NADEMSKY (Николай НАДЕМСКИЙ) ...Le grand-père et le général
Les PODOROZHNYY (Лесь ПОДОРОЖНЫЙ) ...Pavlo, le 2ème petit fils
Semyon SVASHENKO (Семён СВАШЕНКО) ...Timochka, le petit-fils
Vladimir URALSKY (Владимир УРАЛЬСКИЙ) ...Un paysan
 
Cinematography : Boris ZAVELYOV (Борис ЗАВЕЛЕВ)
Production design : Vasili KRICHEVSKY (Василий КРИЧЕВСКИЙ)
Production : VUKFU (Odessa) (ВУФКУ (Одесса))
Restauration : Mosfilm (1973), musique de V. Ovtchinnikov
Release date in Russia : 13/04/1928
 
Site : IMDb

Plot synopsis
An allegory in which the central theme is the relationship of an old man with his two sons, one bad, one good, searching for treasure buried in the hill of Zvenigora. The good son represents the progressive social order for which the revolution strove; the bad son represents the chaos of any major social upheaval. Zvenigora is less a film than a tone poem, set forth by master Russian cinematic poet Alexander Dovzhenko. Moving outside the studio system for the first time (it was his fourth film), Dovzhenko uses lyrical location shots of rural Ukraine and its farmers to excellent advantage. The very complex storyline (too much so to dwell on at great length here) combines elements of fact and folklore in relating the "history" the Ukraine, using the search for a fabled treasure as the glue that holds the tale together. This is not an accessible "classroom classic" like Eisenstein's Potemkin. Be prepared to think and be challenged, and not to sit back comfortably, while experiencing Zvenigora.
Hal Erickson, All-Movie Guide
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- The Golden Age of Soviet Cinema : 1924-1930, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023
- Moscow International Festival of Archival Films (Formerly "Belye Stolby"), Moscow (Russia), 2023
- The USSR of filmmakers at the Cinémathèque française. 1917-1945 : first and second part, Paris (France), 2017
- Cinémathèque de Toulouse : Tarkovski et autres poètes du cinéma soviétique, Toulouse (France), 2014
- Europalia Russia 2005, Brussels (Belgium), 2005

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