What a strange and interesting movie.
It might sound weird to say that I think anthropologists would like this movie. It's mainly just a bunch of Ukrainian people (and some Russians) looking at the camera and occasionally saying things but most of the film's emotion comes from facial expression and from the music being played.
The synopsis on the surface seems quite simple. There's an old man named Peter who's dying. He tells his family and local community that a tractor would be a good thing. Later on they get a tractor and it proves to be the best thing for them.
Now there's this other family who was quite rich. I guess there's supposed to be a metaphor for the old imperialist families who ruled over the peasantry. They don't like this tractor because it's making a mockery of them and taking away from their financial success. So one of their kids goes off and kills the main kid of the tractor family (His name was basil) Or at least they say they killed him. The guy's just dancing around and then he falls down and dies. I guess the other guy shot him. the movie doesn't really tell you that. The movie doesn't tell you a lot of things. It just shows you a bunch of things happening and lets you decide for yourself what's going on.
But here's the weird part. It's one of those films that when you look at it on the surface you think oh this is propaganda made to promote the Communist system. But when you look at the movie you realize they're mocking the Communist system. They're probably mocking the old system too and the more less saying that people's lives are hard and miserable. Sure there's some good things to be had, but overall it's a difficult time.
There's the subplot about moving away from religion and Superstition but at the same time maintaining your spiritual faith and some degree just in case God turns out to be real.
and then the majority of the film is just people living. Dealing with things and interacting with one another.
It's not bad for a 1930s film it's still in the silent era so you have to depend either on written texts or your own interpretation of what the people are saying. And that becomes very important considering there are very few text bubbles in this film. Except for the part where they actually get the tractor and they keep on saying it's arrived and here it is ready to use.
It's a pretty interesting film. I don't know if I'd recommend this to anybody besides silent film fans and general film Geeks but maybe you'd find something to enjoy.
It has some pretty nice costumes. Between the nice suits of the 1920s and the traditional Ukrainian dress shirts that all the men have. It always amused me that Ukrainian men wore very white shirts despite the fact that they lived in a land with the world's darkest soil.
Maybe the white clothing is supposed to symbolize fertility and Youth. Maybe it doesn't symbolised any of that and I'm missing the point altogether.
All I know is white clothing is very hard to maintain even in the Modern Age. You get one Speck of dirt or food on it and you're going to spend 20 minutes with bleach and washing detergent. So God help the people of the old age. Who didn't have bleach readily available to them.
Oh my God they have to sit there in the Sun for 4 to 6 months out of the year. At least Ukraine* gets a lot of sun.
*When I originally wrote this I put in ''The'' Ukraine. That old Antiquated way of referring to the state. Where it made it sound as if it was still a territory that belong to some other Regional power. Rather that be the Russians, Austrians or even the Turkish. And I've been trying to get out of that habit for some time. Ukraine is a nation all to itself, despite all the people that to this day still want to take back land they deem as their own.
That leads me to a tangent. The Russians have recently taken Krym** as their own land. Claiming that it was their territory from the beginning and that it's full of their own ethnic people. For one thing it's not full of 'their' ethnic people. It's either full of Ukrainians or Cossacks.
And the second thing (and this is much more important). Even if their first claim was true and this land was 100% Russian ethnic, they still gave it up to the Ukrainians back in 1954.
Oh yes the Russians actually did own this territory before then. It was considered part of the greater Russian socialist Federalist Republic. But they transferred it over to Ukraine SSR.
So from every legal angle this territory is officially a Ukrainian province. It's not just the Western powers in the rest of the world that recognise this but the ''technical'' Russian government as well. They're claiming of it to this day is so illegal that they should be arresting their own leader for trying to do this.
**So for some reason I always refer to this land as Крим which is the Ukrainian name for it. Even though most people in the English World know it is Crimea. Which I find so difficult to say now that I actually have to sit there and think the entire word Frou. God help me I'm trying to remember it as the English word so I don't have to be a confused Miss every time I try to talk to somebody about this. But it's proving most difficult.
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