The Ural Front
About The Ural Front
In August 1941 the men of a Ural town are sent to the front. The women take the heavy jobs they leave. An evacuated plant arrives with refugees. Anna, played by Tamara Makarova, takes a woman and her children into her house. The neighbors follow her example.
Cast & crew
More about The Ural Front
Sergei Gerasimov directed and wrote it. Ivan Stepanov designed the sets. Mosfilm released it on August 5, 1944. It runs 83 minutes. The Russian title is Большая земля (Bolshaya zemlya). Artkino Pictures distributed it in the United States in 1945. Tamara Makarova, Viktor Dobrovolsky, and Sofya Khalyutina lead.
Themes
Background
Factories and people were moved east of the Urals in 1941. The film opens on that August and stays with the women who kept a town and a plant running.
Making
Gerasimov made the picture at Mosfilm during the war, with the Ural town built as a set under Stepanov and the story dated to the first weeks after the German invasion.
Notes
- The American release title is The Ural Front.
- Anna's decision to house a refugee family is what the other households copy.
- The plant comes west with the people, not as a separate news item.
- Makarova was Gerasimov's wife and a regular lead in his films.
- Stepanov is credited with the sets rather than a location town.
Scenes
- The men are seen off to the front.
- Women take over the jobs in the town.
- Anna brings a mother and her children into her house, and the neighbors do the same.
