The Dryden will screen Zemlya (Earth, Aleksandr Dovzhenko, Soviet Union 1930, 79 min., 16mm) as part of the Silent Tuesdays series.

This stylized silent "film poem" is about the creation of a collective farm and the conflicts between the poor peasants and wealthy landowners in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Fighting for communist equality, the peasants are willing to become martyrs for their soil and for the tractor that promises improvement in their socially polarized environment. Ukrainian director Dovzhenko employs unique aesthetics and powerful filmic symbols and unabashedly reveals the complex realities of Soviet rural life.

[source: George Eastman Museum, 2017-Sep-25]