Cinema
Chapaev
Чапаев
Synopsis
In 1919, in the Urals, during the Civil War, the partisans of Vasily Chapaev, a barely educated peasant turned division commander of the Red Army, fight Kolchak's White armies. A political commissar, Furmanov, arrives from Moscow to instruct and supervise this rustic commander; the two men clash at first, then the commissar earns Chapaev's respect. Around them live the orderly Petka and Anka, who operates the machine gun.
Context
The screenplay, signed by both directors, adapts Dmitri Furmanov's book. Boris Babochkin plays Chapaev, Boris Blinov Furmanov, Leonid Kmit Petka and Varvara Myasnikova Anka. Produced in Leningrad, the film was first shown on 6 November 1934. According to the Larousse, it was a great success in the Soviet Union and in Europe, and it received a State Prize in 1941; Stalin regarded it as the best Soviet film.
Who it is for
A sound film of about an hour and a half, a film of action and character, accessible without knowing the Civil War.
Prizes and reception
Thirty million spectators saw it in one year; the Larousse regards it as the prototype of socialist realism in cinema.