Earth (1930 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Земля (Earth)
Film poster
Directed by	Alexander Dovzhenko
Written by	Alexander Dovzhenko
Music by	Levko Revutsky V. Ovchinnikov
Cinematography	Danylo Demutsky
Editing by	Alexander Dovzhenko
Release date(s)	1930 (Soviet Union)
Running time	76 min.
Language	Silent film Russian intertitles
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Earth (Russian and Ukrainian: Земля, translit. Zemlya literally translated "Soil") (1930) is a Soviet film by Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko concerning an insurrection by a community of farmers, following a hostile takeover by Kulak landowners. It is Part 3 of Dovzhenko's "Ukraine Trilogy" (along with Zvenigora and Arsenal).

Earth was simultaneously lauded and derided by Soviet authorities due to its fairly ambiguous political message. Soviet influence is clear if one looks for it, particularly in the nearness to the "earth" of the peasants, but exactly why or how the symbol functions is unclear. Indeed, the film also deals with subjects such as death, destruction, and poverty.

Earth is usually considered Dovzhenko's best film, and is often cited alongside Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin (1925) as one of the most important films of the Soviet era. Unfortunately, there are no high quality prints of "Earth" available for viewing. The best print available is the Kino version which is still below standard though it is watchable.

It was named #88 in the 1995 Centenary Poll of the 100 Best Films of the Century in Time Out Magazine. The film was also voted one of the ten greatest films of all time by a group of 117 film historians at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair ^[1] and named one of the top ten greatest films of all time by the International Film Critics Symposium.^[2]

The starting scene of Earth, showing an old man dying among pear trees, probably influenced the music video of the 1994 Enigma song Return to Innocence. ^[3]