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Earth (1930 film)

Earth
Zemlya 1930 poster.jpg
Lithuanian theatrical release poster
Directed by Alexander Dovzhenko
Written by Alexander Dovzhenko
Starring Stepan Shkurat
Semyon Svashenko
Yuliya Solntseva
Yelena Maksimova
Nikolai Nademsky
Music by Levko Revutsky
(original release)
Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov
(1971 restoration)
Cinematography Danylo Demutsky
Edited by Alexander Dovzhenko
Release date
  • 8 April 1930 (1930-04-08)
Running time
76 minutes
Country Soviet Union
Language Silent film
Russian intertitles

Earth (Ukrainian: Земля, translit. Zemlya) is a 1930 Soviet silent film by Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko, concerning the process of collectivization and the hostility of Kulak landowners. It is Part 3 of Dovzhenko's "Ukraine Trilogy" (along with Zvenigora and Arsenal).

The film begins with the final moments of grandfather Semyon (Simon) Opanas beneath a pear tree. Next local kulaks, including Arkhyp Bilokin, contemplate the process of collectivization and declare their resistance to it, while elsewhere Semyon's grandson Vasyl (Basil) and his komsomol friends also meet to discuss collectivization, although his father is skeptical.

Later, Vasyl arrives with the community's first tractor to much excitement. After the men urinate in the overheated radiator, the peasants plow the land with the tractor and harvest the grain. A montage sequence presents the production of bread from beginning to end. That night Vasyl dances a hopak along a path on his way home, but a dark figure attacks and kills him.

Vasyl's father turns away the priest who expects to lead the funeral, declaring his atheism. He asks Vasyl's friends to bury his son in a new way without priests and "sing new songs for a new life." The villagers do so, while Vasyl's fiancee, Natalya, mourns him painfully and the local priest curses them as impious. At the cemetery, Bilokin's son Khoma (Thomas) arrives in a frenzy to declare that he will resist collectivization and that he was the one who killed Vasyl, but the villagers pay him no attention. One declares that Vasyl's glory will fly around the world like a new communist airplane. The film ends with a downpour of rain over fruit and vegetables.

The political and historic events of Earth and the agricultural developments of Dovzhenko's home country Ukraine was a hot topic during the film's production and laid the foundation of the controversy that the film's release caused. In 1906 the Tzar had allowed peasants to own private land, which they then passed down through the generations. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, these peasants in Ukraine wanted to keep their family land and farms and the Soviet government tolerated them. After the grain shortages in the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin decided that it was necessary to eliminate "rural capitalism" in these regions and take control of the farming industry in 1929. Stalin stated "We must smash the Kulaks, eliminate them as a class." Some of the land owning peasants fought back and began to sabotage agricultural machines. The local Kulaks were more militant and committed violent acts against Soviet officials. Most Ukrainians wanted to keep their private land, especially since compared to many other parts of Russia their land was agriculturally rich and fertile. In the middle of the political conflict surrounding this topic, Dovzhenko made a lyrical and poetic film depicting the lives of Ukrainian farmers that many Soviet officials considered completely inappropriate.


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