Cinema
Ballad of Siberia
Сказание о земле Сибирской
Ivan Pyryev · 1948
Synopsis
Andrei Balashov, a piano prodigy, goes off to war and is wounded in the hand: he can no longer play as before. Demobilised, he leaves Moscow for Siberia without saying goodbye to Natasha, the singer he loves. He works on the construction of a factory and, in the evening, sings and plays the accordion in a tea room, among the local people.
Context
Produced by Mosfilm in colour, the film is based on a story by Pyryev, turned into a screenplay by Evgeny Pomeshchikov and Nikolai Rozhkov, with music by Nikolai Kryukov. Vladimir Druzhnikov plays the pianist and Marina Ladynina the singer, with Boris Andreyev and Vera Vasilyeva. The Centre Pompidou showed it in France in its cycle devoted to the freezes and thaws of Soviet cinema.
Who it is for
A musical melodrama in colour of about an hour and three quarters, to be seen for its songs and its landscapes.
Prizes and reception
The second Soviet film shot in colour, with Marina Ladynina in the role of Natasha.