Zvenigora
Screening on Film
Directed by Alexander Dovzhenko.
With Semyon Svashenko, Nikolai Nademsky, Alexander Podorozhny.
USSR, 1927, 35mm, black & white, silent, 91 min.
With Semyon Svashenko, Nikolai Nademsky, Alexander Podorozhny.
USSR, 1927, 35mm, black & white, silent, 91 min.
Dovzhenko referred to Zvenigora as “unusually complicated in structure, eclectic in form … a catalogue of all my creative abilities.” Anchored in a legendary tale of the search for buried treasure in Zvenigora mountain, the film proceeds to take in centuries of Ukrainian history and folklore through a series of unexpected jumps between time periods and stories. A visually exhilarating mixture of the mythical and the modern, it ultimately arrives (by train) at an ode to industrialization. Zvenigora was the third and last Dovzhenko silent to receive a new score by Ovchinnikov.