Ballad of Siberia

1948 film

Ivan Pyryev (story)
Evgeniy Pomeshchikov
Nikolai Rozhkov

Starring

Vladimir Druzhnikov
Marina Ladynina
Vladimir Zeldin
Vera Vasilyeva
Boris Andreyev

CinematographyValentin PavlovEdited byAnna KulganekMusic byNikolai Kryukov

Production
company

Mosfilm

Release date

1948

Running time

114 minutesCountrySoviet UnionLanguageRussian

The Ballad of Siberia (in Russian: Сказание о земле Сибирской, romanized: Skazanie o zemle sibirskoy), also known as Symphony of Life,^[1]^[2] produced by Mosfilm and released in 1948, was the Soviet Union's second color film (after The Stone Flower). It was directed by Ivan Pyryev and starred Vladimir Druzhnikov and Marina Ladynina.

It is a Soviet style musical movie, full of songs, such as "The Wanderer", describing the development of Siberia after World War II.

Synopsis

Pianist Andrei Balashov (Vladimir Druzhnikov) after being wounded at the front during the Great Patriotic War loses the opportunity to earnestly pursue music due to a hand injury. Without saying goodbye to his friends and his beloved Natasha (Marina Ladynina), he goes to Siberia. He works on the construction of a plant, and in the evenings sings in a teahouse. By chance, weather conditions force the plane with Andrey's friends, Boris Olenich (Vladimir Zeldin) and Natasha, who are flying to a competition abroad, to land at the airport near the building of the plant. Andrey meets them and it changes his life. He travels to the Arctic and inspired by the heroic labor of the builders to write a symphonic oratorio "Ballad of Siberia", which receives universal recognition.

Cast

Vladimir Druzhnikov as Andrei Nikolayevich Balashov
Marina Ladynina as Natasha Pavlovna Malinina
Boris Andreyev as Yakov Zakharonovich Burmak
Vera Vasileva as Nastenka Petrovna Gusenkova
Sergei Kalinin as Kornei Nefedovich Zavorin
Yelena Savitskaya as Kapitolina Kondratyevna
Vladimir Zeldin as Boris Olenich
Mikhail Sidorkin as Sergei Tomakurov
Grigoriy Shpigel as Grigori "Grisha" Galadya

Songs

It is a musical movie, with songs both old and new. The most notable songs are:

"The Song of the Siberian Earth" (words by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky, music by Nikolai Kryukov)
"The Hymn to Siberia" (words by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky, music by Nikolai Kryukov)
"The Wanderer" (in Russian: Бродяга)

Influence

This film was so successful that a second color musical film, Cossacks of the Kuban, was made two years later by the same director and cast.

This movie also became popular in Japan. It gave influence to the Utagoe Movement and Utagoe coffeehouse in the 1950s, eventually leading to the Karaoke phenomenon in the 1970s.^[3]

References

^ Lars Karl, Pavel Skopal (2015). Cinema in Service of the State: Perspectives on Film Culture in the GDR and Czechoslovakia, 1945-1960. Berghahn Books. p. 254. ISBN 978-1-782-38997-2.
^ Dorota Ostrowska, Francesco Pitassio, Zsuzsanna Varga (2017). Popular Cinemas in East Central Europe: Film Cultures and Histories. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-786-72239-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Utagoe Cafes in Tokyo