Earth

Alexander Dovzhenko, along with Eisenstein and Pudovkin, is considered one of the three great masters of Soviet silent cinema. Based on (and produced at) the height of a bloody and bitter struggle between private farmers and Soviet collectivists, EARTH engendered a storm of controversy at home before winning almost universal acclaim as one of the screen's great lyric masterpieces. (It was deemed the best film of all time by director Lindsay Anderson in 1952 and by film historian Lotte Eisner in 1972.)

Simon (Nicholas Nademski), an old Ukrainian farmer, lies in his fields surrounded by his loved ones. Before dying, he sits up and eats a piece of fruit. The old ma...