Feature film
The City of Masters
Город мастеров
Vladimir Bychkov · 1966
Synopsis
A free town of craftsmen falls into the hands of the troops of a foreign king, whose lieutenant, the Duke of Malicorne, imposes a ruthless order and turns the master craftsmen into forced labourers. Some of the inhabitants take to the neighbouring forests to prepare the fight. Karakol, a hunchbacked sweeper, secretly loves Véronique, a gold embroiderer and daughter of the master Firen, whom the duke also covets, and a fortune-teller tells him that he will be the one to free the town.
Context
Nikolai Erdman writes the screenplay after the play by Tamara Gabbe, The Tale of the Two Hunchbacks, composed in 1943 during the siege of Leningrad and first staged the following year at the Central Children's Theatre. Oleg Karavaichuk composes the music and Alexander Boim designs sets inspired by medieval engravings and tapestries; Mikhail Ardabievsky and Alexander Knyazhinsky handle the camera. The exteriors are shot in the old town of Tallinn and at the Pirita convent of Saint Bridget. The film is released on 24 January 1966.
Who it is for
A tale in Russian, in medieval costume, whose grotesque and theatrical style may be disconcerting today.
Prizes and reception
Prize for best children's film at the Kiev festival in 1966, diploma for visual achievement at Vilnius the same year, and fourteen million six hundred thousand viewers.
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