Ariadna Dzyubina

Against the will of the fathers (1926) was shot based on the story of Sholom Aleichem "Blood Stream", which talks about the participation of Jews in the 1905 revolution. The first version of the film, entitled "Mabul," was banned by the Soviet government. The 5-part version of the film has survived: a version modified by the will of censorship with other names of the characters, an updated storyline, a more positive attitude and a happy ending. The finale of the final reel shows the mass scenes of the revolutionary struggle in St. Petersburg, the scene of the Jewish pogrom.

This SovKino production was a major early experiment in Soviet historical film about the oprichnina period of Muscovite history, combining the costumed drama and Gothic thrills of the genre with historical materialist commentary on the dialectical collision of scientific progress and patriarchal religious tyranny under Tsar Ivan the Terrible. It follows a self-taught inventor from the serf class Nikishka, whose efforts to build a flying machine incite accusations of witchcraft. Nikishka and his beloved Fima are persecuted by the feudal lord Kurlyatev, who took their village in a petty land squabble. They’re rescued when Kurlyatev’s lands are taken by the Tsar in his autocratic campaign against the feudal system. Ivan puts Nikishka to work in his linen mill, where the young serf is coveted by Tsarina Maria Temryukovna, who the Tsar’s been ignoring in favor of his cupbearer Feodor. A series of harrowing intrigues wind a bloody dance through bedchamber, feast hall, cathedral and dungeon.

Lost movie.