Feature film
Kastus Kalinovskiy
Кастусь Калиновский
Vladimir Gardin · 1928
Synopsis
In the nineteenth century, in the western provinces of the Russian Empire, peasants seize grain convoys. The lords join the revolt in order to take command of it and attach the country to Poland; Count Velkopolski leads them, and his son Stanislas commands a detachment that fights the Cossacks of Governor Muravyov while plundering villages. Yass Rudenok sends his sister Marylia to ask for the help of Kastus Kalinowski, leader of the insurgent peasants, for whom the people want bread and land.
Context
Produced under the banner of Belgoskino, the Belarusian state film body, the film was shot in 1927 in Leningrad, where the equipment and technicians that Minsk lacked were to be found. Gardin wrote the screenplay himself; Naum Aptekman operates the camera, and Nikolai Simonov plays Kalinowski, alongside Boris Livanov and Kondrat Yakovlev. The film escapes the ban that struck other Belarusian films of the same period in 1937.
Who it is for
A silent film of seventy-two minutes, with Russian intertitles, which assumes some knowledge of the history of Poland and Belarus.
Prizes and reception
Well received on its release, but seen only in the Soviet Union, it is counted among the three founding films of Belarusian cinema.
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