What It's About:

Dovzhenko's silent masterpiece concerns the struggle of a group of peasants in Ukraine, led by activist Vasili (Svashenko), who seek to collectivize their farms. Standing in their way, however, is rich landowner Thomas Whitehorse (Peter Masohka) and his greedy cohort.

Why I Love It:

Long recognized, along with Sergei Eisenstein, as one of the groundbreaking early masters of silent cinema, Dovzhenko managed to craft films of extraordinary intelligence and creativity, even if his first allegiance was to the Soviet Communist Party. "Earth" is the story of a peasant revolt, and while it valorizes the nobility of the rural underclass in its opening sequence of an elderly ox herder's death, its almost surreal imagery of Ukraine's pastoral fields remains striking. So does the famous arrival-of-the-tractor montage, a kinetic scene that adds to the strange, lyrical beauty of this homage to both Bolshevik pride and nature's cosmic vitality. Love, death, fertility, and social transformation - all cohere in this astonishing and gorgeous film.