Дурман Демьяна

1925 Animation 6 minutes Directed by Aleksandr Bushkin

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About Дурман Демьяна

The worker Demyan spends his pay on drink. Through his eyes the street lamps grow serpent heads, flies fill the frame, and the horizon dances. A neighbor pulls him out of the fever. The next time, he goes to school instead of the pub.

Cast & crew

More about Дурман Демьяна

Aleksandr Bushkin wrote, directed, and drew the anti-alcohol cartoon in 1925. Animator.ru credits the studio as Sovkino (Kultkino). Culture.ru notes that in 1922 he had opened an animation workshop at the Goskino plant, after studying at the Kiev art school. A circulating print runs 6 minutes 5 seconds.

Themes

  • A wage spent on drink
  • A city seen in fever
  • School instead of the pub
  • Demyan
  • alcohol
  • serpent lamps
  • neighbor
  • school
  • Aleksandr Bushkin

Making

The city is drawn as Demyan sees it drunk: lamps with snake heads, a dancing skyline, then a plain morning and a school door.

Music

Silent.

Preservation

Gosfilmofond holds a print, published with Culture.ru. A 6-minute-5-second file is on Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

  • The Russian title is Durman Demyana. Culture.ru glosses it as a cartoon on the harm of alcohol.
  • Bushkin is the only name on the drawing, script, and direction credits in the animation catalogues.
  • Animator.ru once listed the film as not preserved. Gosfilmofond later published a print through Culture.ru's open collection.
  • The same year, the Austrian Film Museum credits Bushkin with the animation in Dziga Vertov's Kino-Pravda No. 23.

Scenes

  • Street lamps sway and grow serpent heads while flies crowd Demyan's sight.
  • The neighbor gets him through the fever, and the next sequence sends him to school.

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (1925. Дурман Демьяна.webm)