Earth
About Earth
Old Semyon dies under an apple tree, with his son Opanas and grandson Vasyl beside him. Vasyl, a Komsomol member, brings the village its first tractor. The men plow through the kulaks' fences and harvest. That night Vasyl dances a hopak on the path and is shot. Opanas turns the priest away and asks for a funeral without the church. At the grave, Khoma, son of the kulak Arkhyp Bilokin, says he killed Vasyl. The villagers go on without him.
Cast & crew
More about Earth
Oleksandr Dovzhenko wrote, directed, and edited. The All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration produced it. The premiere was April 8, 1930. Soviet authorities banned it nine days later, and scenes were cut before general release.
Themes
Look
Danylo Demutskyi photographed the village, the tractor, and the night path.
Music
Levko Revutsky wrote the score for the original release.
Preservation
The National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Center restored the film in 2012. The original negative was lost in 1941.
Notes
- Semen Svashenko plays Vasyl. Stepan Shkurat plays Opanas. Yuliya Solntseva and Yelena Maksimova are in the cast.
- At the 1958 Brussels World's Fair it placed tenth on the Brussels 12 list.
- The original negative was destroyed in a German air raid in 1941.
Scenes
- The men urinate into the tractor's overheated radiator, then plow.
- Vasyl dances the hopak and is shot on the path.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1930 Земля.webm)
