Earth (Zemlya)

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Review added by
Curtis Owen

Certificate: 18
Running Time: 78min
Retail Price: 12.99
Release Date: 17th May
Content Type: Movie

Synopsis:
One of the most important films of the Soviet era, Alexander Dovzhenko's tour de force Earth (Zemlya) finally gets a long awaited DVD release courtesy of Mr. Bongo Films.

This much lauded pioneering Russian silent film is seen as Ukrainian director Dovzhenko's best film and often appears on critics' international top ten film lists. Previously unavailable Earth makes its DVD debut, fully restored and in its full-length version including all deleted scenes, on 17 May 2010.

Dovzhenko was commissioned to make what was intended to be a minor propaganda film to encourage the establishment of farming collectives. Set in the Ukraine it tells of the struggle between the peasants and the kulak, the local landlord. In order to stand up to the opposition, the peasants form a committee headed by Vasili to collectivise the land and stock. They buy a tractor to tear down the fences dividing land, but triumph soon turns to tragedy.

The final work in a loose trilogy that also comprises Zvenigora (1928) and Arsenal (1929), Earth is Dovzhenko's celebration of life and an ultimate prayer to nature, the land and those who toil on it.

The film unfolds using a series of stunning visuals to reflect the constant cycle of birth, growth and death resulting in a truly poetic masterpiece.

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