Wings of a Serf (Крылья холопа) - OFF SITE

Session Submission Type: Film

Brief Description

The 1926 Goskino production Wings of a Serf (Крылья холопа) was an international hit in the late 1920s that today is remembered mostly for its influence on later filmmakers (including Eisenstein and Tarkovsky) and its significance within the careers of writer Viktor Shklovsky and director Yuri Tarich. Its untimely consignment to archival obscurity stems in part from its controversial content: the film’s depictions of violence and seduction in the court of Ivan the Terrible provoked heavy-handed interference from censors both at home and abroad. Taking a historical materialist approach rarely applied to the subject, the film depicts tsar Ivan IV not as a tragic hero or a demonic madman, but as a petty and venal opportunist building his proto-capitalist empire on the backs of exploited workers and artisans. This atypical portrayal is made even more unique by the inclusion of frank homoerotic scenes between the tsar and his androgynous favorite Feodor Basmanov. The film’s extreme, often grotesque naturalism in depicting the sex, grime and blood of the past both reflects the bold experimentation of the Soviet ‘20s and telegraphs a vision decades ahead of its time.

Sub Unit

• Film Series

Introduced by

• Maya Aracelia Acevedo Garcia, Harvard U

Questions and Answers Moderated by

• Daria V. Ezerova, U of Cambridge (UK)

• Kevin Mercer Forsyth Platt, U of Pennsylvania

• Joan Neuberger, U of Texas at Austin

• Julia Alekseyeva, U of Pennsylvania

• Daria Khitrova, Harvard U

• Yuri Tsivian, U of Chicago