Hunger
Not to be confused with Gardin and Pudovkin's similarly titled documentary 'Golod... golod... golod...' (1921), this fictional propaganda film by Ivanov-Gai portrays the conflict between pro-communist villagers, poor but 'progressive,' and anti-communist 'kulaks' (rich, reactionary farmers) in the first few years of Russian communism. The poor farmers want to take over all the land, previously monopolized by the greedy kulaks, and turn it into a commune equally shared by all. The poor farmers are inspired by a young working-class lad from the city, but the chief kulak and his daughter conspire to get rid of the hero. The film was first conceived as an adaptation of dramatist Andreev's earlier play 'Tsar-Golod' ('King Hunger'), but Ivanov-Gai's completed 'Golod' emerged as a standard pro-communist propaganda film. Only the framing story seems indebted to Andreev's play, where hunger had been symbolized in the person of 'King Hunger.' Ironically, writer Andreev himself (1871-1919), author of the famous 'He Who Gets Slapped,' was an outspoken anti-communist who emigrated from Russia after the 1917 Revolution. This early Soviet film 'Hunger' has been preserved by the Russian Film Archive only in an incomplete form -- a fate at least more fortunate than numerous silent films around the world which now seem totally lost.
