Melodia!: Screening “Cossacks of the Kuban” by Ivan Pyryev

Kino Klassika is delighted to take part in the British Film Institute’s Musicals! season, and present the first of the films in their own strand, ‘Melodia! Discovering Musicals from Russia and the Caucasus’.

Ivan Pyryev’s Cossacks of the Kuban (1949) is a high color, high energy post-war production. Soviet films from this era tended toward the propagandistic, portraying an idealized image of Soviet life. Cossacks of the Kuban (1949) is no exception. Drawing inspiration from Hollywood musicals, the film paints a picture of an idyllic life on collective farms in the Kuban Region, a couple of years after a devastating famine exacerbated the already high losses the Soviet Union had suffered in The Great Patriotic War.

The depiction of Cossack identity culminates in vibrant scenes of horse races and musical numbers performed in striking, ethnic costumes. Featuring a gorgeous, original soundtrack from Isaak Dunayevsky, songs written for the film resonated so much that they entered the public consciousness as folk songs.

The screening will be in the British Film Institute on 14 and 31 of October.