Earth (1930 film)

Earth
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alexander Dovzhenko
Written by	Alexander Dovzhenko
Starring	Stepan Shkurat Semyon Svashenko Yuliya Solntseva Yelena Maksimova Nikolai Nademsky
Music by	Levko Revutsky Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov
Cinematography	Danylo Demutsky
Editing by	Alexander Dovzhenko
Release date(s)	8 April 1930
Running time	76 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Silent film Russian intertitles

Earth (Russian/Ukrainian: Земля, translit. Zemlya) is a 1930 Soviet film by Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko, concerning an insurrection by a community of farmers, following a hostile takeover by Kulak landowners. It is Part 3 of Dovzhenko's "Ukraine Trilogy" (along with Zvenigora and Arsenal).

Reception

Earth was simultaneously lauded and derided by Soviet authorities due to its fairly ambiguous political message. Soviet influence is clear if one looks for it, particularly in the nearness to the "earth" of the peasants, but exactly why or how the symbol functions is unclear. Indeed, the film also deals with subjects such as death, destruction, and poverty.

Earth is usually considered Dovzhenko's best film, and is often cited alongside Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin (1925) as one of the most important films of the Soviet era.

It was named #88 in the 1995 Centenary Poll of the 100 Best Films of the Century in Time Out Magazine. The film was also voted one of the ten greatest films of all time by a group of 117 film historians at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair and named one of the top ten greatest films of all time by the International Film Critics Symposium.

It's also the first film in a double-feature which Woody Allen's character goes to see in Manhattan.

Cast

• Stepan Shkurat as uncle Opanas
• Semyon Svashenko as Vasil
• Yuliya Solntseva as Vasili's sister
• Yelena Maksimova as Natalya, Vasili's fiancee
• Nikolai Nademsky as Semyon "Simon"
• Ivan Franko as Arkhip Whitehorse, Khoma's father
• Pyotr Masokha as Khoma Whitehorse
• Vladimir Mikhajlov as Village priest
• Pavel Petrik as Young party-cell leader
• P. Umanets
• Ye. Bondina
• Luka Lyashenko as Young Kulak

External links

• Earth at the Internet Movie Database
• Earth at AllRovi
• Ray Uzwyshyn's Visual Exploration of Earth Earth (1930): Philosophy, Iconology, Collectivization