Earth

Director: Aleksandr Dovzhenko
Release Date: April 8, 1930

Rightfully described as a "film poem," Dovzhenko directs a sensual silent film, with a surprisingly absent plot. Set in the Ukraine, Earth tells the struggle between the peasants and the kulak, the local landlord. Standing up to the opposition, the peasants form a collective headed by Basil--an incredibly handsome farmer. The collective buys a tractor and tear down the fences that surround the kulaks farms. Basil gets killed by a kulak, Thomas (?), and the remaining members of the collective mourn his death in a non-religious, protest-like march.

Earth begins and ends with similar scenes. In the first, Basil's granddad dies in a fruit orchard. There are a lot of close ups of the family, and dramatic sweeping shot of cornfields and fruit harvests. The conclusion sweeps cornfields and shows heavy rain pouring on the fruit orchard.  Could this possibly be the radical, missed-by-the-censors statement of the uselessness of the transition to collective farming?  

The film shows a series of visuals to reflect the constant cycle of birth, growth, and death. When both characters die, there are multiple shots of children eating the fruit of the earth, the beautiful countryside, and crops in growth. These are all symbols of the cycle of birth, growth, and death. I understand, even more now, the symbol of food and growth that Ukraine grew to be for both the Nazi Germans and the Soviet Russians.