Cinema
The Earth Is Thirsty
Zemlya zhazhdet
Yuli Raizman · 1930
Synopsis
In the early twenties, in a Turkmen aul lost in the sands of the Karakum, the lack of water keeps the peasants subject to the bai Aman-Durdy. A group of students from a hydraulics institute arrives, Komsomol members, who propose to the villagers an expedition to the Timur hills, which block the water's path to the desert, and a plan to blow them up. The bai, who profits from the peasants' dependence, fully intends to oppose it.
Context
The film, written by Sergei Yermolinsky and photographed by Leonid Kosmatov, was produced by the company Vostokkino. Shot without a soundtrack, it was given sound effects and music in 1931, with a score to which Reinhold Glière contributed; it is presented as the first Soviet sound film. The director had previously made The Circle, in 1927, and Katorga, in 1928, which had drawn attention to him.
Who it is for
A Soviet film from 1930, in black and white, first shown with no sound at all and then reissued the following year with noises and music.
Prizes and reception
Screened in 2021 at the Free University of Berlin in a series on Soviet energy policy; King Vidor says he drew inspiration from it.