As the rarely seen classic of Soviet silent cinema, Wings of a Serf, nears its 100th anniversary, the HFA is pleased to screen a 35mm print of this extraordinary film whose vivid, idiosyncratic depiction of Russia’s oppressive theocratic past resonates and provokes in new ways today. This special screening includes live musical accompaniment and takes place in conjunction with the annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) being held this year in Boston. Presenting new research relating to the film at the conference, scholar and recent Harvard PhD Maya Garcia ‘23 will present the screening and lead a discussion afterward with scholars and historians Daria Khitrova, Yuri Tsivian and Kevin Platt.

Though this lavish Goskino production was an international hit in the late 1920s, today the film is remembered mostly for its influence on later Soviet filmmakers—including both Eisenstein and Tarkovsky—as well as its significance within the careers of theorist and “script doctor” Viktor Shklovsky and pioneering Belarusian director Yuri Tarich. Its untimely consignment to archival obscurity stems in part from its controversial content: the film’s depictions of violence and seduction in the court of Ivan the Terrible provoked heavy-handed interference from censors both at home and abroad. Taking a historical materialist approach rarely applied to the subject, the film depicts Tsar Ivan IV not as a tragic hero or a demonic madman, but as a petty and venal opportunist building his protocapitalist empire on the backs of exploited workers and artisans. This atypical portrayal is made even more provocative by the inclusion of frank homoerotic scenes between the tsar and his notorious cross-dressing favorite Feodor Basmanov. The film’s extreme, often grotesque naturalism in depicting the sex, grime and blood of the past both reflects the bold experimentation of the Soviet 1920s and telegraphs a vision decades ahead of its time. – Maya Garcia

Live musical accompaniment by Robert Humphreville.