Siberiade

Infobox Film
name = Siberiade


image_size =
caption = Russian DVD cover
director = Andrei Konchalovsky
producer =
writer = Andrei Konchalovsky
Valentin Ezhov
narrator =
starring = Natalya Andrejchenko
Nikita Mikhalkov
Vitaly Solomin
Vladimir Samojlov
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = 1979
runtime = 275 min. (4-part)
country = Soviet Union
language = Russian / German
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:122430
imdb_id = 0079907

"Siberiade" (Russian: "Sibiriada / Сибириада") is a 1979 epic Soviet film in four parts. The leading roles were played by the celebrated Soviet actors Nikita Mikhalkov and Lyudmila Gurchenko. The director was Andrei Konchalovsky, working for the Mosfilm studio.

ynopsis

Set in the small village of Yelan, which has lain hidden in the Siberian backwoods since time immemorial, "Siberiade" revolves around two families, the Solomins and the Ustyuzhanins, who live in Yelan and have been feuding for as long as anyone can remember. The Solomins tended to be quite wealthy and the Ustyuzhanins poor, so that when the Russian Revolution comes along, the Solomins refuse to acknowledge it (Siberia was the White Army's centre of operations). Nikolai Ustyuzhanin is a lone warrior against them. However, it will take a new generation of the two families to resolve this conflict, and set all right.

Toward the end of the film, set in the 1960s, Yelan is no longer a remote village, because the area has been found to be full of oil, and this brings in new people and expansion, causing new problems.

In its theme, the movie combines narrative elements from different traditions. So the first part of the movie tells of wondrous archetypical elements within the Russian culture, as connected to the pre-electrified epoch that is being narrated. Similarly, elements of the heroic epic are included within the part narrating the protagonist's involvement in World War II.

Throughout the film, the differences in epoch displayed and, accordingly, stylistics and themes used are very well consistent with each other, thus writing a continuous history of Siberia in the 20th century, transcending the seeming ruptures yielded by the national- and global-scale socio-political and socio-economic discourses. Likewise, it can be watched and regarded as an early reflection on processes of Globalisation, a topic seemingly counter-intuitive, when it comes to Russia.

Cast

*Vladimir Samojlov
*Vitaly Solomin as Nikolai Ustyuzhanin
*Nikita Mikhalkov as Aleksey Ustyuzhanin
*Natalya Andrejchenko as Anastasya Solomina
*Pavel Kadochnikov as Eternal Grandfather
*Sergei Shakurov as Spiridon Solomin
*Lyudmila Gurchenko as Taya Solomina
*Igor Okhlupin as Philip Solomin
*Yevgeni Perov as Yerotei Solomin
*Vladimir Simonov as Afanasy Ustyuzhanin
*Ivan Dmitriyev as Blinov
*Mikhail Kononov as Rodion Klimentov
*Ruslan Miqaberidze as Tofik Rustamov
*Maksim Munzuk as Fedyka
*Nikolai Skorobogatov as Yermolai
*Konstantin Grigoryev
*Yelena Koreneva as teenage Taya Solomina
*Yevgeni Leonov-Gladyshev as teenage Aleksey Ustyuzhanin
*Vladimir Levitan
*Leonid Pleshakov
*Vadim Vilsky

Awards

The film won the Special Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival

In popular culture

Eduard Artemyev's theme from the movie was covered by the Russian trance act PPK and issued under the title "ResuRection" in August 2002. It reached #3 in the UK Singles Chart.

External links

*imdb title|id=0079907|title=Siberiade
*amg title|id=1:122430|title=Siberiade

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Grand Prix Spécial du Jury, Cannes
years=1978
before="The Shout" tied with
"Bye Bye Monkey"
after="Mon oncle d'Amérique"