Shchors

Director: Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Yulia Solntseva

1939 / 135min / 35mm

A biopic of the “Red Commander of the Ukraine,” Bolshevik commander Mykola Shchors, starring Yevgeny Samoylov in the title role, Shchors was personally commissioned by Joseph Stalin himself, and its production was a fraught one for Dovzhenko, whose health suffered grievously from the make-or-break pressure he faced to toe the line. The eventual results pleased the General Secretary—Dovzhenko would be awarded his first of two Stalin Prizes in 1941—though the film endures less for its vigorous, saber-rattling hagiography than the moments of ineffable poetry with which it’s embroidered, rooted as always in a deep sense of Ukrainian cultural tradition and relish in the natural world. “As in all [Dovzhenko’s] best work, Shchors leaves in the memory burning images of death and of passionate life” —Jay Leyda

35mm print courtesy of the Filmoteka Narodowa, Warsaw

Distributor: Dovzhenko Center

Part of Oleksandr Dovzhenko: Earth and Empire