The Girlfriends
About The Girlfriends
Zoya, Natasha, and Asya grow up together in Petrograd. When the Civil War reaches the city they join a workers' unit as nurses and help hold Bolshevik Petrograd against the White advance. The war pulls the three friendships apart and then back together under fire.
Cast & crew
More about The Girlfriends
Lev Arnshtam's first film as director. He wrote it with Raisa Vasilyeva. Vladimir Rapoport and Arkady Shafran photographed it. Dmitri Shostakovich wrote the score. Lenfilm released it in February 1936. In the United States it was called Three Women. Zoya Fyodorova, Irina Zarubina, and Yanina Zheymo play the three friends.
Themes
Background
The film looks back at the defense of Petrograd in the Civil War from the middle of the 1930s, when Lenfilm was turning that war into features about ordinary recruits.
Making
Arnshtam came to direction from music. He gave Shostakovich the three nurses' story as a Lenfilm feature, not as a short.
Look
Vladimir Rapoport and Arkady Shafran shot the Petrograd streets and the medical posts where the three women work.
Music
Dmitri Shostakovich composed the score.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Boris Chirkov and Boris Babochkin are in the cast, along with Boris Poslavsky.
- The Russian title is Подруги (Podrugi).
- Shostakovich's score is for a war story told through three women rather than through a staff headquarters.
- A second recorded release date is 19 February 1936.
Scenes
- The three friends sign on as nurses when the Whites move on Petrograd.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons
