Farewell, America

d. Aleksandr Dovzhenko
c. USSR
y. 1949

description:
"Farewell, America is the last film Alexander Dovzhenko worked on as director. Production was stopped by the government half-way through (like many films under Stalin's regime) and the footage that had been shot was stored away somewhere in Moscow. Only recently (in the 1990s?) was it rediscovered. The version I saw (and probably the only version 'available' to the public) is a reconstruction in which the scenes that were shot have been interspersed with some Russian man, with the help of Dovzhenko's original script (including some sketches he'd drawn), describing the scenes that are missing. The basic plot concerns an American woman, Anna, who goes to work at the American embassy in Moscow just as World War Two is ending. There she finds that everyone has an extreme irrational hatred of the Russians, bordering on fascism, and they all want to start a new war against Russia. She and one man are more sympathetic towards the Russians, and even are friends with a Russian family, much to the disapproval of the embassy. She goes on an assignment to Ukraine to investigate collective farming and show how unhappy the masses are with it, but finds only kind and happy farmers. Not satisfied with this report, the embassy orders her to change it, before she is sent back to America. Here she finds the same bias and hatred, and when she returns to Russia she does not return to the embassy, but becomes a citizen of the Soviet nation. It must be noted that this for the large part, is a comedy, poking fun at Americans." (IMDB Comment)

IMDB... 6.8 (16)
_AMG... 2.5 / 5.0

size: 670MB
qlty: TV
subs: no

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