The Battle of Kerzhenets
7.2 /10 1 Votes
Duration Country USSR | 7/10 IMDb Genre Animation, Short, War | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Director Yuriy NorshteynIvan Ivanov-Vano Release date 1971 (USSR) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Battle of Kerzhenets (Russian: Се́ча при Ке́рженце; tr.: Secha pri Kerzhentse) is a 1971 Soviet animated film directed by Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Yuriy Norshteyn. The film is set to music by Rimsky-Korsakov and uses Russian frescoes and paintings from the 14th–16th centuries. These are animated using 2-dimensional stop motion animation.
Contents
Plot
The story is based on the legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (made into a 4-act opera by Rimsky-Korsakov in 1907), which disappears under the waters of a lake to escape an attack by the Mongols. (Russia was under the Mongol-Tartar yoke for a period of three centuries in the Middle Ages.)
The film itself follows the legend only loosely, however, and its highpoint is a battle between the Russian soldiers and the Mongol hordes, symbolizing a clash of cultures (the Virgin Mary appears early in the film, in effect watching over the Russian side of the battle).
Awards
References
The Battle of Kerzhenets WikipediaThe Battle of Kerzhenets IMDb The Battle of Kerzhenets themoviedb.org