Bezhin lug

1937
31m

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

700

YOUR RATING

Drama Short

A Soviet farmer's son, who is working at a Kolchos is killed by his father, who wants to burn the fields of the Kolchos to damage the Soviet Society.A Soviet farmer's son, who is working at a Kolchos is killed by his father, who wants to burn the fields of the Kolchos to damage the Soviet Society.A Soviet farmer's son, who is working at a Kolchos is killed by his father, who wants to burn the fields of the Kolchos to damage the Soviet Society.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

700

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Trivia
Production was stopped by Soviet officials in 1937. Sergei Eisenstein had spent two years filming and had up to three different completed versions. The footage that had been shot up to that point was taken to a film storage vault, which was destroyed in a German bombing raid during the war. The film was alleged to have also been destroyed at this time; however, the government is thought to have destroyed it earlier on. Eisenstein, though, saved two frames from the beginning and end of all of his shots and in the mid-'60s these were put together according to script, story board and notes for a 31-minute reconstruction of film stills.

Alternate versions
The only surviving version of this film was assembled in the 1960s using surviving still frames that Sergei Eisenstein had saved during editing. They were arranged based on the script and set to music. Although the original would have been a sound film, no sound elements are available any more, so the current version is silent, and uses intertitles.

Connections
Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Une histoire seule (1989)

User reviews8

Review

Featured review

7/10

A perfect illustration of a totalitarian society

"Bezhin lug" is a film long thought lost. Only in the '60s fragments were found, but even today the film is far from complete. This makes it difficult to write a review.

The film is situated in a Kolchoz. A farmer with nostalgia for his former existence as a free farmer (Samokhin) is betrayed by his own son (Stepok). Stepok becomes a hero because he has warned against "contra revolutionary elements".

Within the oeuvre of Sergei Eisenstein "Bezhin lug" (1937) can be seen in connection with "Old and new" (1929). "Old and new" is about the collectivization of agriculture. In "Bezhin lug" this collectivization is finished but has to be defended against the already mentioned "contra revolutionary elements".

The film is very revealing about the nature of totalitarian rule. Even in your own family it is dangerous to be honest.

The authorities were not pleased by "Bezhin lug", and the film was not released, disappeared in archives and later gets lost. The question is why?

Is the film, Stepok being the hero, not politically very correct?

The above question is very hard to answer. During his career Eisenstein developed from the convinced Communist of "Strike" (1925) to the doubts expressed in "Ivan Groznyy" (1944 & 1958), which contains hidden criticism on Stalin. "Bezhin lug" is somewhere in the middle of that development. The story is still politically correct, but is the visual language politically correct also?

In numerous images there is a face at the edge of the frame, symbolizing (for me) the omnipresence of traitors in a totalitarion society.