Dauria is an Soviet 1971

1971 in film

The year 1971 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music...

 historical action/drama set in Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

, Russia. Adapted from the novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 of the same name by Konstantin Sedykh and directed

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 by Viktor Tregubovich.

While the movie was criticized for its historical inaccuracies, its epic scope and intense battle scenes won wide praise and has been credited with affecting the political landscape of Siberian Russia.

Plot summary

Epic film about traditional life of Cossacks in the Siberian province of Dauria at the time of the communist revolution. Focused on a Cossack village that is living like one big family under the guidance of a strong leader - Ataman (Kopelyan).

Young Cossack Roman Ulybin (V. Solomin) is in love with beautiful Dashutka (Golovina). Roman is asking his father, Severian Ulybin (Shelokhonov), to send a Matchmaker before it's too late. But a wealthy crook has already hired the Matchmaker, and his son gets married at the lavish traditional wedding with singing, dancing and drinking in the Russian style.

So, frustrated Roman Ulybin leaves his father's home to follow his big brother Vasili, a Communist leader who promises happiness after the revolution. But, after the revolution, people suffer a cascade of troubles. Good old traditional life is destroyed by chaos, lawlesness and crime. Greed and envy blinds many people, and they forget their good traditions and life as good neighbors. Cossack leader Ataman is brutally beaten and humiliated. Roman's father, Severian, is murdered in a wrongful dispute, and Roman is late to reconcile with his father.

Main cast

• Arkadi Trusov as Grandfather Ulybin.
• Petr Shelokhonov
  Petr Shelokhonov
  Petr Illarionovich Shelokhonov, was a Russian actor and director, designated Honorable Actor of Russia .-Childhood:Petr Shelokhonov was born in 1929, in Belarus, then a part of the Soviet Union; Peter Larionovich Shelokhonov...
  
   as Severian Ulybin. The father of Roman.
• Vitali Solomin as Roman Ulybin. The son of Severian.
• Vera Kuznetsova as Ulybina. The wife of Severian.
• Vasily Shukshin
  Vasily Shukshin
  Vasily Makarovich Shukshin was a notable Soviet/Russian actor, writer, screenwriter and movie director from the Altay region who specialized in rural themes. Upon his death, Shukshin was interred at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.-Biography:...
  
   as Vasili Ulybin, the leader of Communists.
• Yefim Kopelyan
  Yefim Kopelyan
  Yefim Zakharovich Kopelyan was a Soviet actor of theater and cinema, one of the legendary masters of the Bolshoi Theatre of Drama . He performed the bright characteristic roles in the films The Elusive Avengers, Intervention, Eternal call, Straw cap, read author's text in the television series...
  
   as Ataman Kargin, the leader of Cossacks.
• Mikhail Kokshenov as Fedot, the neighbor of Ulybins.
• Yury Solomin
  Yury Solomin
  Yury Mefodievich Solomin is a Soviet/Russian actor who has directed the Maly Theatre in Moscow since 1988.Solomin studied at the Malyi theatre school and joined its troupe in 1957...
  
   as Semen, a Communist agent.
• Viktor Pavlov
  Viktor Pavlov
  Viktor Pavlovich Pavlov was a Russian film and television actor.Pavlov was born in Moscow. After graduating from the M. Schepkin Theatre School, he worked in the some of the most popular theatres of Moscow:* 1963-1965 - Sovremennik Theatre...
  
   as Nikifor, a hard core Cossack.
• Svetlana Golovina as Dashutka, the love interest of Roman Ulybin.
• Zhenya Malyantsev as Roman's little brother.
• Fyodor Odinokov as Dashutka's father.
• Lyubov Malinovskaya as Dashutka's mother.
• Yuri Nazarov as a runaway prisoner.
• Vsevolod Kuznetsov as Cossack Platon Volokitin.
• Lidiya Feoseeva-Shukshina as Matchmaker.
• Zinovi Gerdt
  Zinovi Gerdt
  Zinovy Efimovich Gerdt was a Soviet/Russian theatre and cinema actor, recognized with the title People's Artist of the USSR.-Biography:At 15, Gerdt graduated from a vocational school affiliated with the Valerian Kuybyshev Electrical Plant. He started working on Metrostroy as a...
  
   as Tsarist General Semenov.
• Georgi Shtil as Anarchist Revolutionary.
• Igor Yefimov as Cossack.
• Dmitri Masanov as Cossack.
• Vladimir Losev as Cossack.
• Sergei Polezhaev as Cossack.
• Aleksandr Demyanenko
  Aleksandr Demyanenko
  Aleksandr Sergeievich Demyanenko was a Soviet and Russian film and theater actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR.-Early life:Aleksandr Demyanenko was born in Sverdlovsk, USSR in 1937. He went to a music school from 1946 to 1952. In 1954 he failed to enter the school of arts. In 1955, however, he...
  
   as Executioner.
• Igor Dmitriev
  Igor Dmitriev
  Igor Borisovich Dmitriev was a Russian film and theater actor who specialized in playing aristocratic characters in costume productions ....
  
   as Executioner.

Crew

• Director: Viktor Tregubovich
• Writers: Konstantin Sedykh, Yuri Klepikov
  Yuri Klepikov
  Yuri Klepikov is a Russian screenwriter and actor. He has written for twelve films since 1966. He was a member of the jury at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:* The Seventh Companion...
  
  , Viktor Tregubovich
• Cinematographer: Yevgeny Mezentsev
• Composer: Gennady Portnov
• Production Designer: Grachya Mekinyan

Production

• Produced by Lenfilm studios.
• Filming dates 1969-1971.
• Filming locations: Siberia, Trans-Baikal region, Narva, Estonia, Lenfilm studios, Leningrad, Russia.
• Over 5 hundred extras took part in filming.
• Leading actors took horseback riding classes for several months before and during filming.
• A unique stunt was performed for the character of Severian Ulybin: live horse with a mannequin in a Cossack costume jumped down from 70-meters-high cliff into the cold river.

Release

• 1971 theatrical release, Soviet Union
• 1975 theatrical release in Finland and other European nations
• 1985 VHS release, Soviet Union
• 2002 DVD release, worldwide

DVD release

• 2002 DVD released by RUSCICO. It is based on the shorter 182 minute version, which was edited for European release in 1975. Dubbing for DVD in three languages was made by professional actors in English, French, and Russian. Subtitles in Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, English, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Potugese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.
• Defects on DVD include errors in sequence of scenes and wrong listing of scenes in the DVD cover booklet. There are some mistakes and discrepancies between English and Russian versions of the DVD.