Film 『 Earth ( Ukrainian : Земля ) 』
Directed by Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko ( Довженко Олександр Петрович )
Release 1930
Starring Semyon Svashenko ( : Семен Свашенко ) ( Vasyli )
Olena Maksimova ( : Олена Максимова ) ( Natalya : Vasyli's fiancée )
Yuliya Solntseva ( : Юлия Солнцева ) ( Vasyli's sister )
Stepan Shkurat ( : Степан Шкурат ) ( Opanas )
Petro Masoha ( : Петро Масоха ) ( Homa Bielokin )
Ivan Franko ( : Іван Франко ) ( Arhyp Bielokin )
■ Opinion in Film History that "Earth" is Dovzhenko's masterpiece remains unshaken to this day ( ＊ A ). However, if this is only because of the visual effects of the fruits, flowers, meadows, people, etc. that symbolize the fertility of Ukraine, it may be too optimistic a view. Such the view overlooks too much the psychoanalytic background of how the nature hymnal images in "Earth" emerged from Dovzhenko's mental confusion.
( * A ) For example, Vance kepley writes that Earth was received with enthusiasm from the time it was first released in the Soviet Union already, before it was praised in the West.
"In the spring of 1930 the city of Kharkov hosted a major cultural event. The principal figures of Soviet Ukrainian arts and letters — at least those who had survived the anti-VAPLITE campaign — gathered to honor Alexander Dovzhenko, an artist who had emerged from their own ranks, and to preview the film recently touted as the finest yet produced by the Ukrainian cinema. Earth. The assembled artists, poets, and journalists proved an enthusiastic audience, bursting into applause at the film’s conclusion. This film, they rightly predicted, would become the work for which Dovzhenko would be best remembered."
"In the service of the state : the cinema of Alexander Dovzhenko ( 1986 )" p.75 by Vance Kepley University of Wisconsin Press
■ This mental confusion is reflected in "Earth," which "artfully" depicts the breakdown of the illusion toward the Bolshevik ideology that was supposed to be exalted to the highest degree in the previous work, "Arsenal. What is meant by " artfully" here is that Dovzhenko is doing so out of concern for political censorship, but it is important to note that he is not denying the Soviet Union's massive political system itself, but only expressing dissatisfaction with the Bolshevik ideology, one of the constituent factors of that political system. Otherwise, it would be hard to understand Dovzhenko's act of sending a letter of salvation to Stalin in the midst of the criticism by the authorities that followed the praise immediately after Earth's release.
■ What is interesting here is that the authorities penetrated that the depiction of mass agrarianization in "Earth" was only the superficial fidelity to communism. For example, criticism of Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party.
"Pravda praised the film for its beauty and originality but condemned its political message as “false.” An official preview before government representatives added to the controversy: Red Army spokesmen endorsed Earth, but a party official used the occasion to accuse Dovzhenko of squandering muchneeded public funds on politically useless films."
"In the service of the state : the cinema of Alexander Dovzhenko ( 1986 )" p.75 by Vance Kepley University of Wisconsin Press
In addition, the poet Demyan Bedny ( 1883~1945 ), a Bolshevik propagandist, also criticized "Earth" in Izvestia as counterrevolutionary and defeatist.
"Demyan Byedny, the Bolshevik ‘folk-poet’, was so outraged by Earth that he devoted a three-column article in Izvestia to denouncing it as ‘defeatist’. This and other attacks resulted in some cuts in the film,* and a shortening of its dis¬ tribution life. *A copy in its original version is preserved at Gosfilmofond, and was shown abroad for the first time in Brussels, October 1958; the negative was destroyed in the German invasion."
"Kino : a history of the Russian and Soviet film ( 1983 )" p.275 by Jay Leyda Princeton University Press
■ The problematic question here, then, is that how Dovzhenko was dissatisfied with Bolshevik ideology, and Thinking about it will at the same time trace the changes in his thought in the transition from "Arsenal ( 1929 )" to "Earth ( 1930 )".
■ Commentaries on "Earth" generally say that the film depicts the introduction of collective farming and the aspect of human relationships that accompanies it. But if that were all, this work would be no different from "Arsenal", which supported communism through its Dovzhenko's sympathy for Bolshevik ideology. This is not the case, as the authorities' criticism ironically proves. The authorities even felt "Dovzhenko's anti-Bolshevism". We will consider Dovzhenko's anti-Bolshevism in detail below, in order.
■ As films depicting sunflower fields in Ukraine, Vittorio De Sica's "Sunflower ( 1970 )" and, although less well known, Giuseppe De Santis' "Italiani, brava gente ( 1964 )" could be enumerated. In both cases, however, the sunflower only serves to symbolize the fragility of men and women torn apart by war. In this respect, De Sica may possibly have been referring to Giuseppe De Santis' "Italiani, brava gente ( 1964 )," which had been released in the past. In other words, the sunflower there only symbolizes something anti-war and does not reach the role of performing The specificity of the Ukrainian State.
■ In contrast, the film that depicts the specificity of the Ukrainian state through the images of sunflowers, fruits, and the land is none other than Dovzhenko's "Earth" ( 1~4 ). Only from the enumeration of these images should we read Dovzhenko's anti-Bolshevist thinking, and the depiction of mass agrarianization is only the gateway to his true intentions.
■ Vasyli tries to push for collective farming and the father vehemently opposes his son ( 5~8 ). The father even tells his son that he will not work with you ( 9 ), and Vasyli calmly tells him that you are too old ( 10 ).
■ Vasyli and companions bringing a tractor to the village ( 11 ). Homa, who is Kulak, gazes anxiously at them ( 12 ). the villagers watch with interest ( 13 ). But the tractor stops on the way ( 14 ).
■ Vasyli realizes that the cause of the tractor failure is the depletion of cooling water, but there is no water around. Men who piss in place of cooling water ( 17~18 ). In this sequence, there are glimpses of human indigeneity and humor as sign of change in Dovzhenko that were not depicted in the intense "Arsenal". The tractor starts moving again ( 19 ). The villagers, excited to see the machine in motion, all rush to Vasyli's side ( 20 ).
■ Vasyli talks about collective farming to the assembled villagers, while Homa looks on the situation in frustration ( 21~24 ).
