The New Teacher
About The New Teacher
Stepan Ivanovich Lautin, played by Boris Chirkov, comes home from his studies in Moscow to build a new school in the village. His father, the kolkhoz chairman, played by Pavel Volkov, reads the return as a failure in the capital. Next door, Agrafena Shumilina, played by Tamara Makarova, notices how often Stepan writes letters and decides he has a romance in the city. She leaves the village to get an education of her own.
Cast & crew
More about The New Teacher
Sergei Gerasimov wrote and directed it at Lenfilm. E. Gal and Grigory Sarkisov produced. Vladimir Yakovlev photographed it. Venedikt Pushkov wrote the music. The premiere was December 10, 1939. English listings give 103 minutes. The Russian filmography gives 102. Lyudmila Shabalina and Valentina Telegina are in the cast with Chirkov, Makarova, and Volkov.
Themes
Background
Released in December 1939, it sets a new school against a kolkhoz chairman who thinks his son has slunk home from the capital.
Making
Gerasimov cast his wife, Tamara Makarova, as Agrafena, opposite Chirkov as the teacher who has come back from Moscow.
Look
Vladimir Yakovlev photographed the village and the school Stepan means to build, for Lenfilm.
Music
Venedikt Pushkov wrote the score.
Preservation
The negative survived the war. The Gorky studio restored the film in 1963 and in 1981. A digital copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The Russian title is Учитель.
- In 1941 Gerasimov and Makarova received the Stalin Prize, second degree, for this film.
- The Gorky Film Studio restored the picture in 1963 and again in 1981.
- Russian accounts treat it as the start of Gerasimov's period of directing his own scripts.
- Lenfilm's full name at the time included the Order of Lenin. That decoration belonged to the studio, not to this picture.
Awards
- Stalin Prize, second degree (1941), to Sergei Gerasimov and Tamara Makarova
Scenes
- The chairman tells the village that his son has come home because Moscow did not want him.
- Agrafena, watching Stepan's letters, packs to leave and study.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1939. Учитель.webm)
