The Thaw
About The Thaw
In a village during the collectivization drive of the late 1920s, a kulak's son seduces Anka (Vera Marinich), the daughter of a poor peasant, and then drops her. She is pregnant. Skulov (Aleksandr Zhukov), chairman of the village soviet, is pulled into the quarrel. Anka's position changes when Semyon (Anton Martynov), a Komsomol member, comes home from the Red Army.
Cast & crew
More about The Thaw
Boris Barnet directed the silent film for Mezhrabpomfilm, from a story by K. Gorbunov. Sergey Yevlakhov wrote the script with O. Melesh. Mstislav Kotelnikov was the cameraman. The Russian title is Ледолом. It runs 65 minutes and was released in 1931. Sergey Pryanishnikov and Yelena Anufriyeva are also in the cast.
Themes
Background
The story is set in the late 1920s, in the push to collectivize and to isolate kulak households.
Making
Mezhrabpomfilm made it as a village picture about the campaign against kulaks, with Barnet directing from Gorbunov's story rather than from an original studio outline.
Look
Mstislav Kotelnikov photographed the Mezhrabpomfilm production.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- The title means the breakup of river ice.
- Zhukov's character, Skulov, chairs the village soviet.
- Semyon is identified in the credits as a Komsomol member back from army service, not as a city official sent in from outside.
Influenced by
- Ledolom (K. Gorbunov)
