"The Russian Film Archives present" "Bezhin Meadow Sergei Eisenstein" "History of an unfinished film (1935-1937)" "Professor Rostislav Yourenev tells the fate ofthis film," "You're going to live an unique experience... the resurrection of a lost film that will be restored from the notes, the old pictures, pieces of film like these ones... where there are only 2 or 3 frames of the film :" "Bezhin Meadow by Sergei Eisenstein" "This restoration is the work of an old friend of Eisenstein, director Sergei Youtkevitch and the young film historian Naoum Kleiman." "The story of Bezhin Meadow is a real tragedy." "During the early thirties, when Eisenstein came back from America, leaving to the Hollywoodian toilers the complete footage of Que Viva Mexico, back home in USSR, his dream was to direct a great and meaningful film." "Finding a script or a story was fruitless for a while." "Finally, he's been given the script from Alexander Rjechevsky about the murder of pioneer Pavel Marozov by his own father, enemy of collectivism." "Sergei Eisenstein began working with passion." "This drama was for him the expression of a tragic and fundamental conflict:" "the brutal struggle between the old and reactionary country, stuck to the past," "and the new soviet and socialist country." "Through the image of Stepok's father, tousled and fearsome, surrounded by old shrews, he saw the old Russia, whereas the new Russia was embodied in the image of pioneer Stepok, illuminated by the sun of future," "supported by the communists and the komsomols of the new soviet country." "The scene where the church is converted into a club should have been the climax." "The religious feeling embodied in famous compositions such as the Crucifixion, the Deposition," "Samson destroying the temple above his head, was opposed to the new momentum of collective action, popular, gay and full of energy." "A first rough cut of the film was screened without Eisenstein, who was seriously ill." "The reception was very negative." "As he wanted to answer to these critics as an artist," "Eisenstein went back to work." "With the novelist Isaac Babel, he rewrote the script, replaced the performer of the father character and a few other players." "He changed the church sequence, which has been the most criticized, by a dynamic sequence of fight against the burning of the kolkhoz kindled by the koulaks." "But Eisenstein wasn't able to finish this version." "The shooting was interrupted.." "The only print of the film has burned while Mosfilm was bombed during the war." "The only retrieved elements are these pieces of film and a few photos that have been used for this restoration." "Dedicated to the memory of Pera Atasheva, who preserved the material on which this film is based," "Bezhin Meadow Sergei Eisenstein" "From a scenario by Alexander Rzheshevsky" "Camera Eduard Tisse" "Stepok Vitya Kartashov" "His father Boris Zakhava" "Kolkhoz chairman Elizabeta Telesheva" "Stepok mourns his mother, beaten to death by his own father." ""How come your father always beat her?"'" ""Because she understood me."" "In the morning, Stepok's father drinks with his friends." ""Ruined by my own son."" ""we thought you slept, unaware of what we said here..."" ""but you went and reported everything!"" ""when God created the heavens, the waters and the earth..."" ""and people like you and me, dear son, He said:"" ""Be fruitful and multiply..." "but if a son betrays his father..."" ""...kill him like a dog."" ""You wanted to burn the grain and destroy the kolkhoz?"'" ""I didn't help set the fire..." "I'm a poor man."" ""And I'm royalty?"'" "The kolkhoz chairman comes for Stepok's baby sister." ""But the child is mine!"" ""we still have to ask her about that!"" ""Farewell, son." "Perhaps we shall meet again."" "The kulaks set fire to the fuel depot." ""There are pigeons in there!"" "The farmers surround the church where the kulaks have hidden." ""Oh, Lord, what have God-fearing people come to?"'" ""The God-fearing people are all long gone!"" "The kulaks reach the highway." ""They ought to be in a museum!"" ""They would like to bring back the Tsar!"" ""They say it has already happened."" "Everyone decides to turn the church into a clubhouse." ""Can't I just take this little icon?"'" ""l can't allow it."" ""Not even one little piece of trash..."" "At night the boys tend the horses and guard the harvest." "The kulaks murder their guards and escape into the woods." "Stepok's father also escapes." ""when God created the heavens, the waters and the earth..."" ""and people like you and me, dear son, He said:"" ""Be fruitful and multiply..." "but if a son betrays his father..."" ""...kill him."" ""Father..."" "The boys lead a doctor to the dying Stepok." "Restoration credits:" "USSR People's Artist Sergei Yutkevitch" "Naum Kleiman" "Editor Klavdiya Alyeva" "Sound Boris Volsky" "Music from the works of Sergei Prokofiev" "Under the supervision of Gosfilmofond expert" "N. N. Olpinskoi" "Camera Valentina Ovanskaya" "Boris Travkin" "Set designer Charles Agadjanov" "THE END"