Bulat-Batır
{{Short description|1928 film}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox film
|name = Bulat-Batır
|image = Bulat-Batır.jpg
|director = Yuri Tarich
Vladimir Korsh-Sablin
|cinematography = Grigori Giber, N. Sokolov, Vladimir Solodnikov (II)
|writer = Natan Zarhi
Abdraxman Şakirov
|starring = Vasiliy Yaroslavtsev
Ada Vojtsik
Ivan Klyukvin
Galina Kravchenko
|distributor = Sovkino
Tatkino
|released = {{Film date|1928}}
|country = Soviet Union
|language =- = Silent film
Russian intertitles
Tatar intertitles
}}
Bulat-Batır or Bulat-batyr (Russian: Була́т-Баты́р, Tatar: بولات باتر) is a 1928 silent historical drama film, believed to be the first Tatar film and probably the only Tatar full-length feature silent film. The film was shot mostly in Kazan, and the Kazan Kremlin was one of its stills. The film is devoted to the Pugachev rebellion and its alternative names include Pugachyovshchina ({{langx|ru|Пугачёвщина}}), Flames on the Volga and Revolt in Kazan.{{Cite book|publisher=Riant Chateau TERRITET Switzerland|author=Bryher|author-link=Bryher (novelist)|title=Film Problems Of Soviet Russia|year=1922|pages=109–111}}
The story was written by Abdraxman Şakirov, a young Communist from Agryz and the script was written by Natan Zarhi, a Soviet scenario writer.
Plot
In the 18th century, a small Tatar village celebrates the Sabantuy festival. Orthodox monks, accompanied by soldiers, arrive with the intent to forcibly baptize the local Muslim population. The villagers resist, but the soldiers carry out a punitive action, killing the wife of the peasant Bulat and kidnapping his son Asfan. Bulat is left alone with his other son, Timur, and his adopted daughter, Asma.
Fifteen years later, Bulat becomes a well-known figure in the Pugachev Rebellion, gaining fame as a defender of the poor. With the help of his son Timur and adopted daughter Asma, Bulat fights alongside the rebels. Meanwhile, Asfan, who was raised among nobles and educated in the elite, receives a commission as an officer. He is given command of a punitive force tasked with suppressing the uprising in his native village of Chibilne, where his father and brother are part of the rebellion.
The events unfold in the Kazan province. Chibilne is likely a fictional village, as there was no village by that name in the Kazan province.
Cast
- Vasiliy Yaroslavtsev as Bulat-Batır
- Ada Vojtsik as Asma
- Ivan Klyukvin as Asfan
- Galina Kravchenko as Elena von Brandt
- Naum Rogozhin as von Kanits
- Ivan Arkanov as Suleiman Murza
- Nikolai Vitovtov as Derzhavin
- Alexandr Zhukov as Timur
- Boris Yurtsev as Murat
- Eduard Kulganek as general Potyomkin, second cousin of Catherine II's favorite Grigory Potemkin
- Mstislav Kotelnikov as Beloborodov, emissary of Pugachov
- Tatyana Barysheva as genius of victory
- Kayum Pozdnyakov
- Lev Ivanov as Kayum
- Stepan Borisov as Yemelyan Pugachev
Critical reception
{{Expand section|date=March 2009}}
It is known that after the premiere in Germany one White émigré Antonov-Ivanov attempted to burn a copy of the film in the "Concordia" cinema as a sign of protest against "Bolshevik Propaganda".{{cite magazine|url=http://www.archive.gov.tatarstan.ru/magazine/go/anonymous/main/?path=mg:/numbers/2006_2/13/13_01/|publisher=Kino|title=Beginning of December. Berlin.|date=11 December 1928|issue=50|access-date=13 June 2021|archive-date=23 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323154939/http://archive.gov.tatarstan.ru/magazine/go/anonymous/main/?path=mg%3A%2Fnumbers%2F2006_2%2F13%2F13_01%2F|url-status=dead}}
The film received a positive review from The New York Times praising it for the authentic atmosphere.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9502E1DF1630E33ABC4A53DFB2668382639EDE|newspaper=The New York Times|title=TARTARS' REVOLT SHOWN.; "Flames on Volga" a Vivid Picture of Catherine the Great's Days}} Bryher praised the scenery and the cinematography.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|tt0017715}}
- {{in lang|ru}} [http://www.kino-teatr.ru/kino/movie/sov/b/679/annot Кино-Театр.РУ]
- {{in lang|ru}} [http://www.rt-online.ru/numbers/public/?ID=14536 "Республика Татарстан". Восемьдесят ярких страниц истории]
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Category:Soviet silent feature films
Category:Silent Soviet drama films
Category:Soviet black-and-white films
Category:Soviet historical drama films
Category:1920s historical drama films
Category:Silent historical drama films
Category:1920s Russian-language films
Category:Russian-language historical drama films
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