The Return of Vasili Bortnikov
About The Return of Vasili Bortnikov
Vasili Bortnikov comes home after a concussion and years in hospital. He had chaired a collective farm. His wife Avdotya, who thought he was dead, has married the mechanic Stephan. Vasili is elected chairman again. He works the farm and, by the end, is back with his family. Sergei Lukyanov plays Vasili. Natalya Medvedeva plays Avdotya. Nikolai Timofeyev plays Stephan.
Cast & crew
More about The Return of Vasili Bortnikov
Vsevolod Pudovkin directed it from Galina Nikolayeva's novel The Harvest. Yevgeny Gabrilovich is the other credited writer. Sergei Urusevsky photographed it. Kirill Molchanov wrote the music. Mosfilm released it in 1953. The length is 2,966 meters, given as 108 minutes. Wikidata also lists March 23, September 4, and September 25, 1953. The Russian title is Возвращение Василия Бортникова.
Themes
Background
The story is a postwar return: a soldier given up for dead finds his place on the farm, and his chairmanship, taken. Nikolayeva's novel The Harvest was a current book when Mosfilm shot it.
Making
Pudovkin filmed Nikolayeva's harvest novel at Mosfilm with Urusevsky on the camera and Lukyanov as the returned chairman.
Look
Sergei Urusevsky photographed the farm and the return, in a 2,966-meter picture.
Music
Kirill Molchanov composed the score.
Notes
- Inna Makarova plays Frosya. Klara Luchko plays Natalya. Nonna Mordyukova is in the cast.
- Anatoli Chemodurov plays Chekanov. Vsevolod Sanayev plays Kentaurov.
- The wife in the novel's film version is Avdotya, not a character named Natalya. Luchko's Natalya is a different part.
- Urusevsky, later the cameraman on The Cranes Are Flying, shot this picture.
- Pudovkin's last features include this one. He died in 1953.
Scenes
- Vasili walks back onto the farm and finds Avdotya married to Stephan.
- The farm elects him chairman again.
- He ends the film back with his family.
Influenced by
- Galina Nikolayeva's novel The Harvest
