Circus (1936 film)
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| Circus | |
|---|---|
 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Grigori Aleksandrov Isidor Simkov |
| Produced by | Mosfilm |
| Written by | Grigori Aleksandrov |
| Starring | Lubov Orlova Vladimir Volodin Sergei Stolyarov Pavel Massalsky |
| Music by | Isaak Dunayevsky |
| Cinematography | Vladimir Nilsky Boris Petrov |
| Release date(s) | 1936 |
| Running time | 94 min. |
| Language | Russian |
| IMDb profile | |
Circus (Russian: Цирк, Tsirk) is a 1936 Soviet melodramatic comedy musical film. It was directed by Grigori Aleksandrov at the Mosfilm studios. In his own words, it was conceived as "an eccentric comedy...a real side splitter."
Starring the glamorous and immensely popular Lubov Orlova (Aleksandrov's wife), the first recognized star of Soviet cinema and a gifted singer, the film contains several songs which instantly became Soviet classics. The most famous is the Song of the Motherland (Широка страна моя родная...).
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[edit] Plot
Orlova plays an American circus artist who, after giving birth to a black baby, immediately becomes a victim of racism and is forced to stay in the circus, but finds refuge, love and happiness in the Stalinist USSR. Her black son is embraced by friendly Soviet people. The movie climaxes with a lullaby being sung to the baby by representatives of various Soviet ethnicities taking turns.
[edit] History
The movie was still very popular after World War II. Ironically, after Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1948-1953 against rootless cosmopolitanism, the Yiddish verse sung by Solomon Mikhoels was cut out from this movie supposedly promoting the idea of fraternity of peoples. It was shown in its entirety only after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
