What is Film Program 39
Aleksandr Dovženko
Zvenigora 1927, 35mm, 106 min (16 B/Sek). Silent Film with Russian Titles and German Subtitles;
Regarded as a silent revolutionary epic, Dovzhenko's initial film in his Ukraine Trilogy (along with Arsenal and Earth) is almost religious in tone, relating a millennium of Ukrainian history through the story of an old man who tells his grandson about a treasure buried in a mountain. The film mixes fiction and reality. Although Dovzhenko referred to Zvenigora as his "party membership card", the relationship between the individual and nature is the main theme of the film, which is highly atypical of the Soviet cinema of the end of the 1920s and its avant-garde influences. Dovzhenko states that full submission to nature[clarification needed] made humanity powerless in the face of nature, and understanding and control of nature is required to make progress. For him, the October Revolution brought about such an understanding.
Screenplay: Michail Johansson, Jurij Tjutjunik;
Camera: Boris Zavelev;
Starring: Nikolaj Nademskij, Semen Svašenko, Les Podorožnij