Жила-была одна баба

Russia

Director's Statement

Once people started talking about the annihilation of censorship in 1987, I decided that it was my duty to get back to this topic and try to tell what the Russian catastrophe is. And in this organic way, the idea of using the Tambov Rebellion material, also known in Russian history as the ‘Antonov Uprising’, was born. Peasants were antagonistic towards the Soviet regime. In 1918, Lenin, who hated Russia, its villages and priests, declared a ‘class struggle’ in the countryside. As a result, ‘Poor Peasants Committees’ were created that carried out atrocities throughout the territories subordinate to the Soviet regime. My work on the script started with a visit to the KGB. Over there I got a few scarce reports and papers. Antonov’s case, which I requested, was never shown to me even in the 1990s. We still do not know what papers are actually kept inside the top secret files. But fortunately, a large number of documents related to the Antonov Uprising were published in the book “Antonovshina” and that was quite enough for me to write the script.
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Cast & Crew

Directed by: Andrey Smirnov

Written by: Elena Smirnova, Andrey Smirnov

Cinematography: Yuri Shaygardanov, Nikolay Ivasiv

Editing: Alla Urazbaeva

Production Design: Vladimir Gudilin

Original Score: Olga Yukecheva

Cast: Alexey Shevchenkov (Malafey), Darya Ekamasova (Varvara), Vlad Abashin (Ivan), Maxim Averin (Alexander), Alexey Serebryakov (Lebeda)

Nominations and Awards

  • Feature Film Selection 2012