Original subtitles

Mosfilm

Film by A. Dovzhenko

THE POEM OF THE SEA

Director: Yuliya Solntseva

Director of photography: G. Yegiazarov

Co-director: L. Pchelkin Prod. design: A. Borisov, I. Plastinkin

I'm on board the steamer Nekrasov.

An entrancing worid passes me by. Blue waters, white sands,

white huts on the green hills...

Birds are flying, high above me.

I have always been excited by birds in the evening skies.

Who is this man?, I don't know but there is something intimate about him.

Together we used to wander the untouched banks

of this great river of our people, used to drink its soft waters.

He is happy floating down this river of ours.

I am happy too, that he is here.

And these giris, and young mothers with their children,

the beautiful river workers and pensive collective farmers...

- Is it you? - Yes.

I thought it probably was. What were you thinking about?

About life. And how beautiful the worid is.

How beautiful life is. And how seldom people realize it.

The river brings these thoughts. The way the water is lapping...

- Where are you traveling? - Home. To the village where I was born.

- And you? - Me too.

I float as if in a dream.

- Tell me, you all work here? - Yes.

We prepare the seabed. I mean we clear it of trees..

- And I am a plasterer from New Kakhovka. - Really.

And you must be a writer?

Despite my age, I've already been a cotton field brigadier.

- And your family? - Mother.

- And your father? - Killed in action. - Mine too.

- What's wrong with your friend? - With Valia?

Valia why are you crying?

She cries because she feels so miserable.

- Is it your child? - Yes.

- Is it a boy? - Yes... Valeryk

He was Valeryk too.

A beautiful child.

Really? What's the best word to describe him, the most...

- Don't cry. This man... - The bastard.

He'll come back to you, Valia, for sure.

Never. I'll bring Valeryk up myself.

My son. Bring him up my way.

Dandle him a little. Dandle.

I'll have a sleep.

What a dream.

I fly. I fly.

And where do you fly?

A strange woman. She starts flying as soon as she goes to sleep.

Wake up. The writer wants to talk to you.

I fly. I fly.

"How far can a man's sight reach?

How great he is, despite his smallness.

He lives but an instant on this tiny planet

yet grasps the whole universe, without beginning or an end.

I am an immortal man.

And it matters not how many micron units of time my personal ego exists.

I am an immortal man, and what I feel and do is beautiful."

You don't recognize it, do you?

The sand banks are gone. Look, Konka. You see?

There's the former Great Zaporizhia Meadow.

It will be a river bed, full of fish. We've grubbed up 40,000 hectares.

Yes... No fluxes...

We are already flying above the sea. Look, there's Beryslav and Kakhovka.

Kakhovka. The legendary.

We used to crush Vrangel there in nineteen twenty.

My father used to work as a farm-hand there. A long time ago...

They were hiring from Mykola to Pokrova. Coming and going.

- On foot? - On foot, brother.

How else... Fathers walk the steppe along the Dnieper.

Rolls, bags and bare feet. The farm-hand is coming...

Do you hear me brother

My friend

The cranes are leaving

Leaving for a far away land

They cry cru-cru-cru

Far from home will I die

I will wear out my wings

Before I cross the sea

You think, mother, I am little. I have been through the war, though,

- been wounded twice, besieged cities. - But you are the youngest.

Yes. But all the others have died.

It was your fate. But why leave me? Stay Ivanochku.

Mother I can't.

Just look around. How nice it is. So beautiful, so quiet.

Thunder and commotion is what I need mother. I need action.

Look at those willows, the wells. Let the cherry-trees blossom.

- Aren't they beautiful? - I belong to a different beauty.

At least you could have gotten yourself a trade.

Drives tip-ups days and nights...

I'm a builder. Five more years and everything will become clear.

- Why break my back at the collective? - What back? Nonsense.

- I've seen the worid. Half of Europe. - So did we.

It's boring at the collective farm, There's nothing there except work.

Nothing for me and my Dunechka. No lights, no theatre, and no club.

It's all fenced off, depressing. You go ahead and fence it all.

I'm off. Like a fish from a broken net

- or a bird from an open cage - Wait. hold on a minute.

Have you thought about the state?

Oh please... If I don't love farming any longer,

let me think of myself.

If the sadness nags me.

Bye.

Husak, wait a while.

Fly away, Husak. No matter what happens, remember, we bear you no grudge.

We shall send you the grains of our toil.

Because it is our destiny, as you know, to make bread for the fatherland.

We too seized capitals and freed nations have seen great and terrible things,

but much beauty too, understand?

So, no matter what, we shall not stop talking to such a worthless man as you.

But watch out. The Earth won't forget those who betray it.

- My dear child. - Don't. Don't even ask me, mother.

- Perhaps I can find someone. - Orysia, dear.

I want to be loved, mother, as you were. Maybe, I'll manage to find someone.

Oh, there's a lake in the field with a floating bucket within

Piney staves, wooden bottom Don't let our hearts grieve

Piney staves, wooden bottom Don't let our heart grieve

Now there's nothing to stop them from leaving the village.

They've been taught Evgeniy Onegin and Tatyana. It's all over.

Now we either should stop education or rebuild the village.

- Why? - The harmony has been disturbed, see?

Meaning?

They are bored at the collective farm, so they break free.

Kakhovka is nearby, building the canal. Look how grown up they are now.

The dam, the city. A palace of culture, flowers in the streets.

Poles apart, indeed.

Oh, there's a lake in the field with a floating bucket within

Great work. The people here are amazing

Look, Grekov is coming. The king of hydro mechanization,

A great man, remember. Mikhail Petrovich.

Welcome.

Do you know who sends his regards? General Fedorchenko.

We flew here together. He's in charge of nuclear matters now.

Really? I fought under his command. Where is he now?

Went home, to his old man.

Said, he felt like bidding farewell to his hut.

Father, why are we going on foot? We could have already got there by car.

- Grandfather wrote: Come home on foot. - Grandfather can't give you orders.

- Why not? - Because you're a general.

Don't disturb me. I want to think.

What a happy man I've been.

Happy with struggle, happy with uttermost exertion, effort.

Happy with love and cruel battles. My people's victory in a titanic fight.

Happy with my victories. Me, the barefooted shepherd,

grazing strange herds, and growing my first calluses.

How boring... I would never live here.

Worthless general's son. The son of a farm hand shall not respond

Daddy. What are those hills over there?

The graves of Scythian kings.

- Have you studied the Scythians? - No we haven't.

Here is the place of my barefoot childhood and raving youth.

The place where my grandfathers, the Zaporizhians, stood guard

over my people, for a quarter of a millennium.

and me, myself, had shed the blood. And the foe had fled, had fled from me.

Fire.

Wine.

Nightingales, nightingales

Do not disturb the soldiers

Twelve outstanding years have passed before I was to return

to my ancestral home on the great river.

I have walked a difficult, yet victorious path.

The worid has changed. Fascism has fallen.

Freed nations have arisen for a new sentient life.

Forwards. Forward, Fedorchenko.

Excuse me...

Good day to you. How can I get to... Where is my hut?

- What hut? - Maxim Fedorchenko's.

Wait...

- Are you? - Ignatz.

- Ignatz. - Maria?

Is that you? Is that you Ignatz? Oh Lord.

- I recognized you. - I recognized you too.

- You're a great man now. - I became a general.

Who'd have thought it. How are you doing?

I can't complain. Things aren't so bad for us.

My husband was killed early on. He didn't fight for too long, poor soul.

Children? Three never came back from the war. One did, a submarine commander.

Another is building at Kakhovka. My daughter wants to go there too.

- Time is passing, Maria. - Ah... Gone in a flash...

- Thirty years. - So they have.

I thought you wouldn't recognize me barefooted.

Enough talking, look, your hut. That tall pear-tree, do you see?..

- And this is your son? - Yes. Why don't you say hello?

- Why should I? I don't know her. - Never mind. Today's youth.

When she was sixteen, he, at eighteen years old,

was the first to silently hold her hand by the stile, in the quiet evening.

The one to awaken her tenderness and dreams of happiness.

But now so long ago. As if it had never happened.

- What's your name? - Sashko.

- And your last name? - Fedorchenko.

Fedorchenko? What's your father's name?

- Opanas. - Opanas. So you are Opanas' boy?

Do you know who I am? I am your uncle and Fedorchenko too.

I'm Fedorchenko. And me too... And me too...

Why are you all in the yard?

Is that you, Ignatz?

What a small hut. It seemed so much bigger.

- It's normal, the same as everyone's. - So I was born here?

You were born here. Has time made it so strange?

Yes. I can't believe it.

There's the pear-tree through the window And here's the ring on the joist.

Your cradle used to hang here, and your mother dandled you

at this very bench.

long, long ago.

- The same bench. - Do you remember mother singing:

The gulls are flying.

- Where is father? - He's building in the village.

He still quarrels with the chairman. They're building the House of Culture.

Very small and windows are misplaced. And that one's bought a ZIM.

- Who? - The chairman, that Savka Zarudnyi.

- Savka? Good chairman. - Yes, very good.

So hard-working, so understanding. Still, they say he is politically unfit.

- Why is that? - He likes his vodka.

And his heart can't take it. So they want to dump him.

But there's no other candidate.

Came by the other day. So angry.

His face is redder than red.

He says: Your general isn't going to come is he?

Wants to see you that much...

Here he is.

- Don't you recognize me? - No.

Me neither.

Are you Zarudnyi?

- Yes. - Well, my brother.

Good to see you.

- We used to fish together once. - Used to mow, swim.

To graze horses. So, how are you doing?

- So-so. - How's life?

Well, we live in great times, so one has to pay for the privilege.

- Will there be a war? - There shouldn't be.

Is this just to comfort us, or was it Khruschov you asked?

I asked Khruschov, and more then once. You know, we all want peace.

Our wishes deserve to come true, because they are so noble.

We haven't seen each other for so long. For a century it seems.

You're a general and I'm the chairman.

A chairman driving ZIM is a general as well.

Supreme commander, yes... of peasants' wives and school children.

The young are with you or at Aristarkhov construction site. They want to study.

- Well, that's great. - I don't see any good.

Everybody runs away from the land.

How long will it last?

Thirty boys and giris have finished school,

and only one of them decided to become an agronomist.

My daughter too went to Kakhovka, to the Hydrotechnical Institute.

What a beauty. If only you could see her So clever and sweet, my Katerina.

You'll meet my father soon. I'm so excited.

We're driving across a seabed. Like in a fairy tale. The village will disappear.

How beautiful. In ten years this place will be a paradise.

Pull over. Let's give this girl a lift.

- Valerii, you're so callous. - I know it's not right.

Katia, when I am with you I don't need anybody else. It feels so good.

I adore you Valerii. Look where you're going.

Slow down, I'm scared. Why are you upset?

Sava Andriiovych, the car from Kakhovka.

- Looks like Katia is here. - I'm coming.

We'll talk about engineers this evening.

He's suffering. The fascists hung his wife Hanna.

He was in the army with his boys,

so I looked after Katia myself, be aware of that.

And besides, his sons were killed in action.

His daughter wants to leave. So he is sad.

He'd built a new hut. Four rooms, and for whom?

- Father. - Greetings daughter.

Well then. Your new home. Have a look. Do you like it?

Very much. I always tell everybody in Kakhovka:

There's no other craftsman like my father.

It's lovely.

- I love everything new. - Will Kakhovka be flooded soon?

Soon, father. We've built a new city there.

Such a beauty, dad.

One writer has said: There are only two cities - Leningrad and Kakhovka.

Everybody is in love. The Dnieper is so amazingly blue there.

Yes. The Dnieper is blue. And where's your young man?

- What man? - I know everything.

- Your engineer. - He was in a hurry.

He'll stop by on his way back.

- So everything is serious, I assume? - Yes father. Very serious.

- You hear? Someone's coming. - Come in.

- Hello. What's up? - Did a man pay you a visit?

- Who? - I thought.

Who could have come?

The foreman from Kakhovka. He was driving down the dam.

Why would he want to come here? He's not going to come.

- Who's the foreman? - The father of this child.

He was on the dam, now he's in Kakhovka.

- I don't understand. - He's growing up so fast.

And me, here, kind of fell behind. He's very clever.

One day I thought, he could have paid you a visit.

You look tired. Have a seat.

It's not tiredness. It's anger.

There's something sad about me, isn't there?

As if there were no socialism. Like in some kind of old book or a song.

But no, that's wrong.

I'm coming.

Hell. There's no peace.

- Kateryna. - I'm coming.

... My beautiful sweetheart. My heart rejoices...

- Hand me over the plank. - Here you go.

I'm yours, my beloved Only death can separate us

You are mine forever, my darling Only death can separate us

Ukraine, my country Ukraine, my country

People are happy there Blessed land

A coachman was dying on the wild steppe

If the Volga overflows Volga, our mother river

My heart is beating It overflows the banks

- Uncle Ignatz is coming today. - He isn't driving, he is flying.

- And why is that? - Because he's a general.

- I'll be a general too. - Nonsense. Why?

Because uncle conquered Berlin. - So what? All of us conquered it.

Then why are you a sergeant and not a general?

Because they wounded father many times.

Maxim Tarasovych, hello.

Your son is here.

God damn them and their plans.

What is this village?

Who ordered these huts to be built in a line?

Huts, attention! Bureaucratic alignment.

Come on. Central directorate imposed the plan.

I don't care. I don't want to build huts in a line.

- Why? - Because I'm a craftsman. Understood?

I'm almost a hundred years old. What kind of planning is this?

- Well, it's an ordinary village. - No, not ordinary.

It's a new village. I don't know what's missing.

- But I feel something is wrong. - What do you mean, wrong?

It doesn't look right. You see?

- But what can I do? I can't bring in the Architecture Academy.

Go ahead and do it. Let them have a meeting right here

on the trussing and look at the steppe at least once,

Is there imagination or not? Academicians...

They'd be better off gold-plating domes and crosses.

And the church, the one my ancestors built.

They destroyed it just like that.

What a pity there is no god. If he had just showed up for a moment

and done justice to those blasphemers,

that have destroyed my ancestors' work.

No pride, no respect.

It could have been standing here for another three hundred years.

We would have perished already and new people

would have adored our country and our seaside ancestral land.

Hello father. How are you, Dad.

Good day, your Excellency.

Standing to attention, as required by the manual.

- Haven't seen you for quite some time. - Yes father.

- I'm glad you're still angry. - Thank god, I am a bit.

Where is your uniform anyway? You could have shown yourself off to everyone.

Or don't you wear your uniform in the village?

Some walk the streets with only their underwear on.

Ugh... Shame on them.

I'm glad you came by. I was starting to think I wouldn't see you again.

Mother was crying until she died.

- Is that your boy? - Yes. It's Alik.

Come here. Don't be afraid, Is he simple or just shy?

Give grandfather some water. Come on stupid, what's wrong?

- What water? Where is it? - Ignatz, give me some water.

Thank you... Is he studying?

- Why are you studying so poorly? - Because...

Not everybody can study well. Somebody has to do badly.

- Very clever. - I'm hopeless at maths.

- Let's try some problems. - Who wants your problems.

- What'll you be when you grow up? - I'll be a prosecutor or a judge.

- Who told you that? - Mummy.

And why would you become a judge?

There, one doesn't need maths. Only criminals.

- What criminals? - All sorts of different kinds.

How will you be able to judge them

when you have no abilities of your own?

You need no abilities. There are clauses and you use the ones which apply.

A judge... How about becoming my carpenter?

- No. - Why not?

- Daddy is general. A carpenter! - And if he ordered you?

I don't want to.

It's boring here. And working manually.

- And that's why you want to try people? - Yes.

Hand me over that club.

- Hello. - Happy house-warming.

May I come in?

Welcome. Please come through the study and into the dining room.

- Nice place. - Good day to you.

- Please have a seat. - How nice. Windows overlook the sea.

You'll go to Kakhovka. We're sending all the dumper trucks from nearby regions.

- To dam the Dnieper. - What about the hut?

We'll finish it and demolish the old one tomorrow.

I'll give you two days and off you go... Goodbye.

Have a drink in the new hut.

- Well then... - What to?

To the old hut, to the new or to the road?

Let everything go well in here. Let it be clean and... and roomy.

God grant.

Look. More of them are coming.

So many people.

I admit it was me. I gathered everybody.

Never before have there been so many people from different cities.

Many absent for over a half a century, seeing each other for the first time.

Everyone is excited with each other, surprised by the changing worid.

and the implacable fluidity of time. There's an architect Bezverkhyi,

the brother of an artist Bezverkhyi.

There's whaler Tsymbal, just returned from an Antarctic cruise.

There are jet pilots.

Here's a janitor, zealous in his "Enter" or "No admittance".

Here's a deputy minister. A very clever woman,

otherwise she wouldn't hold this office.

Due to her mental effort and outlook, she has developed myopia,

as a result of which she barely recognizes her playfellows.

But her friends, clever, though without a high position

at the collective farm have recognized and resented her.

- Phooey, she thinks herself a swell, - Yes, look how she turns away.

Do you remember how she studied? Worse then we did.

Imagine that.

Uncle, honk it. - Uncle.

- Go to hell, stop picking on me. - Oh uncle, come on, honk it.

"ZIM', I'll eat you.

Just watch it, you little bastard. Damn you! Throwing sticks around.

Even though we're poor, just look at us. Blossoming like poppies.

- Hello. - Hello Aunty Khrystyna.

Let me have a good look at you, or we'll only say goodbye.

waving and crying. Nobody ever returns. The only thing I remember is farewell.

Have we no joy at home? Is life so dull?

Of course not.

You lie... Colonels and generals let alone intellectuals are all alike.

Brykun Kharko, he's stupid, but still. Have you seen Brykun?

- Look, Brykun has showed up. - Are you kidding? Where?

There he goes. And they said he was arrested.

Kharko... Pretentious person.

Tell me dear guests. For ten years now, day and night, I ask the sun.

And the stars, if my son Iv�n is still standing in Berlin's square?

Yes. He is!

With a sword in one hand and a baby in the other, by his heart? Tell me.

Yes mother, he's standing there.

Look after him. Don't let him drop the sword or the baby.

There he is.

Seven sons lost to the war. Her mind has been blurred,

and when her daughter-in-law

showed her the picture of the fallen warriors monument,

she was staggered by the similarity of the statue to her own son Iv�n.

There he is. There he is.

Greetings. How nice to see you all at home, together at last.

Greetings. It is wonderful to see how many intelligent people

our collective farm has given to the state.

Good day to you.

Welcome.

- Look who's here? Reva... - It's me Sava Andriiovych.

- Just back from Antarctic Ocean? - That's right.

I look around and everything is like in a dream.

Hello...

I'm so happy... Welcome.

Just look around. 190 teachers and agronomists

Doctors and engineers. Six colonels, those who survived:

Colonel Sokyrenko, Bondarenko,

- Doroshenko! - Here!

- Bilokon! - Here! - Colonel Chub! - Here!

Antarctic captain Reva.

- General Porokhnia. - Haven't seen you in ages.

General Fedorchenko!

Hello... hello.

Maybe after having been to the capitals, you aren't too happy to be here.

We are not far-famed with anything, except for, let's say, drought and dust.

There are no deputies amongst us, no collective farm celebrities.

We are not so good at being heroes or deputies.

We lack people.

Having grown up, some spread their wings and flew away for high positions.

Others, without wings, ran like hell in all directions,

to where there's more asphalt, electricity and a little less taxation,

- And we already learn there how to sow. - Sava Andriiovych...

Let me speak.

My speech may be a little wrong, but it doesn't matter.

The main thing is important.

And the main thing is, that the sea is going to happen.

And our village will disappear beneath its waves for good.

This very place, where our ancestors and all of us have grown up,

loved, cried and rejoiced...

will become a seabed.

Where our mothers, still giris then, rhymed their songs,

will become a seabed.

Artists could of course paint it. Hundreds of pictures of the old village.

But there are no artists... No artists...

For people to see, one day, under communism, the bed of our sea.

For them to know that it wasn't formed in some Silurian era,

but it's our workers' and peasants'. A human sea.

And I thought: Since they lacked wits,

or something else was stopping their mediocre souls,

let me summon the survivors.

And then I asked you to write those letters.

Thank you Sava Andriiovych. Thank you. That's right.

Wait a moment.

Why was I summoned anyway?

My working profile... I'm no artist...

I'm a refrigeration expert.

Yes... But eagles and falcons don't come alone.

The little birds follow. Deputy this, assistant that, somebodies and nobodies.

Various regional and state buyers and agents:

Take-a-duck, take-a-hen, take-an-apple, take-the-mickey,

give-a-goose, give-an-egg, give-a-damn, pick-a-cherry, get-the-cream.

Some others, darn their souls, have forsaken the land

to sweat in an office... for a quarter of a century.

Or to run like... stray dogs after someone's cart.

Let me say again, I am very happy...

If, according to instructions,

this village will be submerged, It will do so

regardless of whether all who have gathered here came or not,

this is the first point.

And secondly. Why was I summoned personally?

To cast a last glance upon your hut.

I mean, those who have one of these. Say your goodbyes.

Those with a refrigerator, get out of my sight!

Well then...

Five of our generations... have lived here.

Here's the tree you used to love...

I cut down the cherry trees and apricots...

But I kept the pear-tree for you. Until your arrival.

Chop it... yourself.

They're cutting it down.

You're a beauty.

So... It's difficult to come back to the past.

All your life has been going forwards.

Yes.

Yes.

Come on...

Come on... Fedorchenko.

Listen, perhaps, you know, maybe

we should replace all this with peaceful atomic energy.

What do you think. The atomic era?

Yes. But our sea isn't an issue of energetics in the usual sense...

but really of water supply. The life and prosperity of our South.

And I say, maybe, we should leave the pear-tree alone.

Since we are generals and deserve some indulgence.

And the sea, if it can't get past, let it go to Skarbna,

towards Chortomlyk.

Am I wrong?

Never mind our huts and pears,

when we're deciding our country's fate for thousands of years to come.

What's it to be lads?

Sea or marshland?

SEA!

I won't sing or dance. I've had enough.

- You've only yourself to blame. - I'm not listening to you.

You won't be happy so long as you do one thing and think another.

What should I think? Today I cleared the garden by the well.

The one we used to drink water from.

My father and grandfather. Memories fill my mind, Understand?

Brighten up. I have

Think about the sea. The new Kakhovka.

I've seen them. They're fine there.

Twenty thousand of them Everyone�s young.

Building the dam. The city by the Dnieper.

And this place, filled with ashes of the past. Maria!

- But you too are building the sea. - Yes I am, damn it!

Forget it.

Once we used to curse the fighting, and yet we won the war.

Then leave me alone. Let me be angry for a while.

The sea! The sea!

This is a great historical necessity.

- I've heard all that 100 times. - The Steppes have waited 100 years.

Oh really? Thanks for enlightening me.

The desert approaches Europe.

Wells are drying up everywhere. The sea is our only option.

I'm upset, you get it? Can't you respect my suffering?

For two days. I just can't work up any enthusiasm for anything.

Stop it, you idols!

Come on.

The shore will be there, by the gully.

The peninsula should be here.

But we have to climb up to the summit.

Give your blessing, boss.

Ready for action?

One moment... Wait.

I will turn my back. Please.

Go ahead...

- Oh, my precious hut... Why do I leave you...

What am I going to do without you...

We'll bulldoze it anyway...

Don't threaten me. I've been through worse...

Sava Andriiovych. Sava Andriiovych, he's crazy.

He's not crazy.

- Why won't he demolish his hut then? - He will, calm down.

He flatly refused.

He hates orders. There are just so many orders, he can't obey them at once.

- Why is that? - Who knows. He doesn't have the gift.

He shows his temper and makes it seem he's doing everything out of spite.

For the last time. Will you clear the land?

Not just the land.

I'd have given you my shirt if you'd have smiled at me just once.

For me to see the good in your eyes. Not like that.

- We have no time to smile. - Now he wants smiles...

We should be building a sea right now.

Go ahead and smile. Don't look at me like that.

Talk to me. Good day.

How are your, and your wife, and children?

Happy sea birthday to you...

No need to wait. He hasn't got the right kind of soul.

Yes. No intelligence. What can you do.

The coward pretends to be brave once in a lifetime,

the miser - to be generous,

a villain - to have a good soul. An old misery - to be happy.

There's only one thing you can't fake.

Yes. It's not just here, it's all over.

If you've not got it, that's it. They shout like loud-speakers...

It's not good.

Yes!

Got any metal?

You say you've got metal. Load it immediately.

We're damming the Dnieper.

What?

Remember: delays mean death.

Understood? That's all.

Mastodons... They've no soul.

Today, I asked a writer:

What do you love most? What is it you just can't live without?

What would inspire you to great deeds? To sacrifice yourself?

To suffer night and day?

Something that wouldn't let you sleep or relax.

You personally, only you, just you?

Tell me, I said to him, your most personal, creative passi�n,

without the fire of which the worid would have collapsed?

Or is there no such passi�n?

There is!

Yes, the dam. Four years of struggle.

It's beauty stands before us, and that makes us glad.

It's so important...

Let's start to dam the closure channel.

Let there be light. Let there be sea.

Just think about the words we say.

Check the flooding area: The banks, dykes and dams.

The sea bed, the construction and resettlement.

- Checked. - Any displeased, offended or forgotten?

Everything should be reasonable, clear and transparent.

What's that?

He doesn't want to?

But everyone wants a better life.

This one doesn't. He's with his hut come hell or high water.

Did you explain that we'll drown him?

He doesn't believe it.

You didn't explain it well enough. You don't know how to talk to people.

Get my car ready for Zelenyi Kut.

You must be reasonable and sincere,

not scaring people by shouting.

It's not just me. The District Committee secretary is here as well.

We've been depicting the bright future for full four hours.

Take care, Grygori, good luck.

- Farewell. - Goodbye.

Let's hear less of the future.

I belong to the here and now.

- In what way? - I work for the future the same as you.

You're talking nonsense!

- All the best to you. - Aristarkhov will drown you here.

I've seen worse. Aristarkhov has his own opinion and I have mine.

Goodbye Grygori.

So long!

The sea will encircle this area. And I'll have my own little island.

What island? It'll be three meters deep right here where we stand.

And the waves in bad weather. This is sea.

Fine. If we're to drown, then let's do so at home.

Yes. We'll sign that nobody is to blame for our deaths.

This is stupid.

- And such a comic death. - Well? So what!

At least I'll die happy

Hello, Grygori Lvovych, Domna Karpovna.

Greetings!

- Working? - Hell no. We quarrel.

- Who are you? - Aristarkhov.

Nice to meet you. You've come to drown us.

To congratulate you on the new sea. A new happiness.

- No good. - Feel bad?

Certainly. We're like storks on the roof, looking for a new home.

You are warm-hearted, and so you feel sorry. - Thank you.

Personally I'm not sorry for you. Quite the opposite.

Well... that's your job.

Forget the hut. We'll drown 45,000 houses at the nearby construction site.

Going to bulldoze the whole city, Novogeorgiyevsk...

And how much does the city cost? - 940,000,000.

Devastation...

Rather, we'll get energy for two billion.

It's like this, some feel sorry, some afraid.

Let me tell you a secret.

I must say, I can't sleep at night either.

It's nearing, every single day...

- The sea? - Yes.

How will it behave?

Might the water go down into the sand-stone?

What will the Spring floods be like?

Can we hold back the pressure of billions of cubic meters of water?

We are building the dam... on tertiary sands.

The whole worid is watching us.

It is very difficult, Grygori Lvovych.

Our sympathies... God grants you will make it.

But beware.

- Of what? - The snakes are crawling upwards.

Into the willow hollows. Grass snakes and asps. The water is going to be high.

Domakha!

- What? - Come down.

Call the bulldozers.

I'm not coming down.

I'm sorry, we'll be quarreling for couple of days yet...

You're trying to build a new image for our lives.

But admit it, we don't fit.

On the contrary...

We're not much to look at. Our clothes aren't fancy.

Our homes only humble, Our troubles, the steppe.

No mountains, no chasms, no cannonade.

You want to shake people's hearts, don't you. With what then?

Bloody wars are over. Famine, forgotten. Graves on the steppes are overgrown.

- We can't fake the nonexistent. - Of course not.

It hasn't rained for two years now.

- Why is the daily pay so low? - Low, yes. It is.

- And why have folks gone away? - You've exhausted them with work.

A little. Yes, I'll admit it.

A little? You want everything at once.

Well. I'm sorry. But I've not finished.

There's three or four more years yet, god dammit.

Thanks. It's a deal.

- And why? - He drinks horilka. A quart a day.

That's normal. Everything about me is like that.

Do you remember my sons? They were large as well.

Everything about me is like that:

My troubles, hopes, plans...

And... my sorrows too.

Why don't we want you?

Stop it, women. What is this ado good for?

Even children understand. The earth is huge.

So much work. We need more hands.

There is no rain, and the ground waters are disappearing.

And the h-bomb weighs upon the worid.

This is our life.

We need waters to stay. The sun to stop feuding with the earth,

And people with each other.

That is our destiny. Don't you see?

- There's so much injustice. - Why, when everything is clear,

why is it so difficult for so long. Why do we lack everything?

I don't know. If I did know...

I'd be a minister. But I'm just a collective farm chairman.

And when things are hard, I remember...

Lenin.

I saw him three times... On the tribune.

At Smolnyi, I was on guard.

I don't remember his words. There were thousands of people.

But I can see him...

as in a visi�n.

What are you thinking of, my brothers and sisters,

standing at the very foundations of our life? What do you see before you?

Never have I had such a strong desire for my worid

to appear before the eyes of all nations in the greatness of its exploits.

For the weak to stand up before the strong and those imagining

themselves falsely superior.

For everything that took place in our extraordinary lives:

victories, difficulties, year long hardships, titanic ascents,

Privations, voluntary and constrained, traces of cold and heat,

And the blood, shed in the giant war.

Everything! Even wrong-doings and mistakes

together with their harsh consequences,

which have always followed the destinies of the great pioneers.

Even for them to appear on the screen in their extraordinary light,

as signs of victory.

- Is Ignatz at home? - Hello.

- Hello Ignatz. - Welcome.

Good day... Korzh. Blazhevych.

- How are you. - Yatsenko? - In person.

- Nagnybida? - Such a long time.

- Recognize me? - We used to graze calves together.

- We conquered Budapest too. - You served in my army?

All of us. I was even wounded... Here and here.

Me too. Got an industrial leg, look.

- My god... How are you? - And you? Thanks.

- No, how are you? - Us? It depends.

- Not too good. But we keep going. - We have our prospect: the sea.

Yes there's hope. Still, some people fall into pessimism.

Savka Zarudnyi is pushing hard.

Ignatz, tell us the truth. As a famous general, and that...

Please. Tell us in all honesty. Tell.

- Why? - What?

I can't... Of course, I've had one too many, sorry.

So I'm going to ask one question.

- Why? - What why?

- Quiet... I got it. - Wait. Later.

After having discussed the international and domestic situation, we decided...

that mankind has got cleverer.

Our enemies have no slogan to lead nations into the battle against us.

There's no slogan, but there's a war machine.

And our enemies can't wait to launch it.

- That's worse. - We are reserve sergeants in peacetime,

Yet for war we're always in active service.

- That's why... - This is secret, Ignatz.

- This is just between us. Okay? - Yes.

Apply to be head of our kolkhoz.

Confound our enemies. What we'd create here by the new sea!

We would turn the worid upside down.

Hold it...

I'm grateful... But, you do know my rank?

- It's quite relevant. - Don't give a quick answer.

We'll give you three days. Think it over.

Alone, I walk along the path

Night is still Wilderness close to God

Through the mist The road's stone shines the way

And above The stars are speaking

Today, this writer asks me:

What would like to see in the new picture, what kinds of people,

Great or small? And what about love?

I told him: love, of course.

And many different people. People like us, like you and me.

And he says: Perhaps you are the most important people of all.

Our state, he says, is great because ordinary people are great...

Solemnly the light From heaven enfolds us

And the Earth sleeps In its pale-blue light

- Oh what fine words. - What beauty.

Then he asked me about my private life.

Did you tell him anything about me? What did you tell him?

You should know that for yourself. I told him, we want profound feelings,

and tender words, and kisses, and tears.

- Even curses! - Who? Why?

What an imagination. Why are you crying?

I'm happy to have such thoughts...

Look how nice it is.

- How beautiful. - It's you who is...

- What? - Well... beautiful.

Do you love me?

- Yes. - Say "I love you".

- I've told you already. - I want to hear it.

- I've already answered. - I want to hear this word, Ivanochku.

Maybe we are truly great.

I don't think so. You can't say: A great tip-up driver.

- Or a great plasterer. - Why not?

Because we're so many. It's like saying A great collective farmer.

He said: There are different kinds of people.

- Do you love me? - Yes.

Say ''I love you". Shout it!

There's no one except us and the stars.

I love you so much, Ivanochku.

It's spooky here at this grave even in day time, and really scary at night.

- Aren't you scared? - No. - The Tsar is buried here.

Two thousand years... Imagine what he's like.

- What Tsar? - The Tsar.

He is here. Covered with gold, like his horse.

They search all the graves. Close your eyes.

- Why? - Close them. - And you? - Me too...

Did you see it? - What?

- Didn't see anything? - What should I have seen?

Come on, close your eyes.

- Mykhailyk... It's dark already, and they're not here yet.

- A good lad. - Yes, he's good.

So gifted. Eats a borsch tureen out in a twinkling.

The father is just the same.

Does everything in a rush.

Why are you crying, you rascal?

- Alik hit me. - Why did you hit Mykhailyk?

I just knocked him down once.

- Why? - Because he lies. Lies and swears.

- I wasn't lying. - You were talking about the Tsar.

- What Tsar? - He said he saw him. The Tsar.

Shame on you. He's the youngest.

Beat the tsar out of him.

Looks like one will enter service, the other, probably become a writer.

Or an artist.

- I don't know... How do I live now? - What a fuss. I'm fed up.

How could you! I never thought I'd be so unhappy with you.

You can be happy with someone else.

With whom then? Don't torment me.

Happiness! In these great times there's more important things then happiness.

Like what? Tell me?

Duty... Work... Commitments to the socialist Fatherland.

So that's what you think. You used to say...

I'll say: Spare me your psychology.

Why did you lie to me?

- Every single day. - It's not lies, it's life.

Everything has its beginning and its end, so they say.

I have conceived a baby.

- I don't know. It's to no purpose. - Valerii.

I can't love only you. Others can, I can't.

I'm a natural man. I can't keep pretending. No!

It's no more. I love you all...

You love yourself, and no one else.

Six months ago you swore...

Yes I swore that I didn't know that woman or her child.

Isn't that oath worth more than some vulgar, erroneous fact?

This is terrible... Hear me? Terrible.

Stop tormenting me. Tell me what you want?

- Swear it. - I swear... Swear what?

Forget it.

No, not good, not good... And this Kateryna...

I like her above everyone else. But what's it so special about her?

Love and beauty, but not much else.

I shall marry Svetlana, Svetlana and only Svetlana. Why?

Because her father is the god of hydro mechanization. And that's it.

What is going on, I don't get it,

God damn me. Son of a bitch! Why am I like this? Why?

No, wait, wait, wait... Why?

This isn't the main thing. The main thing is that we build communism.

The dam is growing. The sea is nearing.

And all of this is beautiful. Amazing.

And I act and grow in this great flood.

Yes, I am immoral, partly.

But what do my morals count for. Nothing.

A drop in the ocean. One must look wider.

Wider and higher.

I don't want to live.

Goodbye forever, my little girl.

Never again will I hear your songs, or laughter.

Or play with the children you'll never have.

Yes... there'll be the new sea and new waves.

The steppes shall rejoice, as people shall prosper and thrive...

It's just that... Your lonely father couldn't save you...

He had no time... Never the time.

And someone corrupted your beauty. And your purity.

And so you felt insulted and paid us back...

Oh, we paid generously, girl, So generously.

Who is he? Wake up, tell me who he is?

Stop it, Golyk. Enough! We'll have to impose a severe reprimand.

- Yes. A reprimand. - Comrades...

Reprimand and warning. Right!

But, comrades...

A reprimand perhaps, but no... Don't hurt me.

It's done. And realize what's happened here.

And what people have seen. A formality.

All the fantasies of this so-called morally obsessed author.

As if Kateryna's poor father wasn't crying before the coffin.

As if you hadn't said that deceitful Cain speech of yours.

But all that could have happened after all, Golyk.

I don't know. You seem to be a good worker...

And that hurts.

Yes, I'm a worker. And I won't be modest.

That's why we should discuss this first from the viewpoint of state interests

and industrial production as a whole.

Moreover, I don't see any legal basis.

Just fantasy and empty talk.

Maybe some people benefit, but I can't work like that...

Hello... I'm in a hurry... I have a briefing...

- Hello, Katia... - Hello.

- Well then... How are you feeling? - Alright.

You look wonderful, as always. Are you working?

Yes.

Ever thought of being transferred to another section?

No. Why?

Well, it would be calmer there. Think about it.

- I'm always calm. - Yes.

Isn't it difficult... To study?

On the contrary. Interesting as never before.

Grekov is lecturing today. A man to listen to...

The Russian Federation is rich with mighty rivers.

Ukraine has only got the Dnieper.

But the Dnieper, in the same way as the Volga,

shall end, within twenty years, the era of its so called anarchical existence

and become a series of levels, separated by dams

with powerful hydroelectric power-plants.

And in a same manner as the Dnieper is unique,

its 14 hydroelectric plants, will be unique too,

with 7 situated in the Ukraine.

There'll be no other such hydro technical installations on the Dnieper.

Therefore,

even with the development of atomic energy in the future,

for years to come, in the process of harvest planning,

we can count on our organized water resources.

And our descendants too.

No matter how great their cultural achievements in the centuries to come,

these hydro technical installations from the great age of construction,

shall represent in their minds great signs of our heroic time.

I hate this Grekov. Once he called me a day-laborer in front of everybody.

It's not communism we build with you, but bureaucratism, he said.

But I'll prove myself. I'll marry his daughter and take wing.

Why? Because he's the god of hydro mechanization.

Our enemies say: Mankind shall die in the desert.

That sooner or later, desert will cover the whole globe with its deadly shroud.

This is our planet's fatal destiny.

And the main factor behind the emergence of the desert is...

Mankind.

That is what the undertakers of humanity say.

I want to listen, but I can't.

An indifferent man has humiliated me.

They say he's clever and hard-working. It's not his fault his soul is blind.

Widows who lost their husbands in the great war are the ones to blame.

They have exhausted his heart...

No, I don't believe he's innocent.

I can see in the pear tree, my mother,

crucified by the cruel fascists for us all...

Comrades, be more conscientious. We have to look to the future.

History has tasked us with a different missi�n.

We have been called upon to show nations their own capabilities,

to guide them on the wise path of existence.

To create seas where the sun, water and earth

have been at enmity for thousands of years.

To draw new rivers upon the plains, rivers as deep and clean

as our drive for peace and brotherhood among the nations.

This is what we are today!

Dad, did they use similar cranes to build channels on Mars?

Yes, probably.

- And the draglines too? - Yes.

- Will we fly there? - Where?

- To Mars. - Why? Life isn't sweet there either.

It's cold out there. Nothing to eat. And a housing shortage.

- Martians are just a name. - Are we better off on Earth?

I don't know, son. That depends.

You must work hard everywhere. We'd be better off

at Yenisey... or Kremenchuk.

Amazing! I wish my wife were here.

She always wanted to see this Dnieper celebration. And here it is.

- Where is she? - She's about to give birth.

- For the fourth time. Imagine! - Congratulations.

Thank you. We have promised each other:

Let's deliver the baby, dam the Dnieper. And then, Goodbye!

At the next construction, I'll apply for crane man.

Create a family brigade, as the boys are growing up.

It's fine labor. Physical activity, but a great deal of mental work.

- Maria... Are you feeling well?

- I'm well. - So soon?

I've been thinking about you all day. Is everything okay?

Yes.

I thought, why not visit the maternity ward to see Maria,

and you... as always.

Come on, let me hold him.

A boy? - Yes. - This is Valeryk, father, Valeryk.

Really? Valeryks are everywhere nowadays...

Little boy. Welcome!

Is that you? So you've come into the worid?

Maria. So nice. As if a sprig is growing from my heart.

As if it were me being born for the fourth time.

My little boy...

Who are you?

Comrades... Maybe he's the greatest talent.

Maybe he's a new beacon for mankind?

They have parents too, don't they?

And skies full of stars... and love.

And compassi�n for each other.

- Listen, he's singing. Comrades.. - He's merely crying.

Don't believe it. Why should he cry?

It is a call, not a cry.

Yelling, he enters his future life.

Listen!

It was soil down there... I sank the channel down 9 meters deep.

You should have made it 9.70.

Nikolay Aleksandrovich, we need more people. We lack craftsmen. Give an order

No, you're responsible. The so called king of geodesy. It's up to you.

Yes... Grekov...

One moment. Quiet, comrades.

- He's marrying your daughter. - Who?

When? I don't get it. Comrades, don't let anyone in.

Wait... Who have you come to see?

You. I work in the quarry. Are you engineer Grekov?

- What do you want? - Svetlana, your daughter.

Sergii Mykhailovych. Look, later, later... Yes, I'm Grekov...

She's marrying my husband Golyk Valerii. I told her everything, the whole truth.

Wait. It's not a good time... I... One moment...

Don't play-act, I know.

The wedding is today, at the club.

Sergii Mykhailovych, I can barely hear you.

Suddenly I'm unwell.

Something's just happened. A shock...

No, not a heart attack.

No. Madness, more like. In the broad daylight.

I'm hanging up, I'm sorry...

You came to see the foreman? Have a seat. He's in a briefing now.

I thought it would be different, this visit.

I've not traveled 150 kilometers to be treated like this.

I thought I'd be in his damn office straight away.

You came to see the foreman? Have a seat. He's in a briefing now.

- You, come here! - What's this?

A murder will be committed.

- Father! What are you doing? Stop! - Hello! Hello!

- Prepare to die. - Father I love him.

- What do you think you are doing? - Love.

I swear, it's misery. Just shame and dismay.

- One moment. - Father... Have some pity.

He debased you. Deceived and dumped you.

Hold it... Wait... Let's say I really... But should it be like that now?..

That's not the problem. It's the tragedy of my rise. Please try to understand.

What are you doing? This is cruel.

Why shouldn't I be cruel to you?

With whose money have you become an engineer?

I didn't shed my blood and lose three sons in Berlin to have you,

you swine, walking all over her. She, the light of my life.

From where?

Out of what hole of the past did you crawl, into the communist light of day?

Good-looking engineer with the morals of a louse.

I despise you!

25 years I've worked without cease. The ground is soaked with my sweat.

I regret nothing.

I have razed my village for this new sea. My own hearth!

The roots of wheat, which pierced the earth.

I grasped them in my brawny hands to cover my body.

If we can do such a things to one another.

To deceive, slander, and debase.

What is this sea good for?

Why do we need new seas,

if our souls are made not of sea waves, but the rottenness of the swamp?

What shall I do with you,

seducer of my child, Young Communist Leaguer?

You were saying?

No. I was lost in thoughts.

What is it? That clacking.

Machine.

Machine gun or typewriter. Makes me recall...

- The war? - All kinds of things.

- Can I see him? - Who?

- The foreman. - He's gone. Didn't you see?

- What do you mean, gone? Gone where? - He was sent for.

- May I congratulate you? - I don't understand.

- Getting married? - What's that?

Keep out of my private life.

It's the private life of engineer Grekov and his daughter.

Here's your register office application. Tear it up now and forget it.

A ninth grade school girl... A lass...

Are you trying to finish off her father on purpose?

- It was my mistake. - A misfire...

Only because Grekov is our most respected engineer,

we shall keep it a secret.

- Thank you. - The end of it!

- Yes. - Your word?.

So, Ignatz Maksymovych... Please have a seat.

You've been to many great hydro-construction sites.

- Yes, almost on every major river. - Which impressed you most of all?

- Try to guess. - Angara.

- No. But it is grandiose. - My folks are dreaming...

The Dnieper is enough for us for many years to come.

But the strongest impressi�n came from my very own village:

I was offered the position of chairman of the kolkhoz.

- I understand. - It was impossible, of course.

We are prisoners of hate and global chaos...

But the words were said, and I agreed within myself.

And so I live with this consent.

- Golyk is here. - Have you sent for me?

If only you knew, Golyk, how depressing it is to see you today.

I can come back some other time.

No. I'm not hiding my sorrow from my dear guest.

This is life, Good and Bad together.

- Bad, Golyk. - I don't understand.

- You're a cad, brother. - Maybe so.

- Very much so. - Grand schemes can't be hitch free.

- Someone might be a cad. - Not someone, you.

We were sent here to take part in this great undertaking. Everybody's happy.

Why don't I see a happy look?

Why are you so rude? So coarse with women?

So much state money has been squandered on you. Why aren't you intelligent?

- I am intelligent. - No!

I see thousands of workers who are more intelligent. Spiritual aristocrats.

You hate me... And that's why you treat me so.

No. My feelings are with the dam, the sea,

thousands of builders. I can barely cope with that.

But I understand how a man can hate.

Hate YOU so much, Golyk.

- You gave me the challenge banner. - To the team.

Yes, mine. And we'll try to put and end to desires.

- When? - Well... in communism.

What do you know.

Yes. He tries to drag his boorishness into communism.

No Golyk. Communism won't accept us.

- Why did you insult engineer Grekov? - I didn't.

- You wanted to marry his daughter? - Yes.

But you've been married twice. With children from both wives.

- I hid it. - Why?

- I was taught to. - That's not true.

I realize my cowardice.

But what's bigger and far more terrible then cowardice I...

You don't know the most important thing. Nobody knows.

What can you do to me?

I have punished myself already.

- Kateryna... If I could only come back. - No.

And start afresh. The past is past.

- Nothing's past. - I swear on my life.

If only the shame and sorrow you have brought me were the results of passi�n,

the passi�n that makes one blind. But you are...

This is our last conversation.

Tell me the name of the thing you hold most dear.

- What is it? Like our sea... - I will.

- You did everything on purpose. - Yes.

Betrayed. Not from an abundance of heart, or exuberance of the soul.

- Of poverty. - Of smallness.

Yes... I still don't know.

Why I am like this?

Geese.

- Are those geese, Mummy? - Yes.

- Wild? - Wild.

Oh. Wild geese. Flying high above the hut...

We can slaughter them, can't we, Daddy? They'll be really tasty.

Slaughter who? I'll smack your bottom.

Little rascal.

But for how long? We've fed them two weeks now.

There's nothing left. Look how big they are, how fat.

We'll slaughter and sell them.

Shame on you, woman. Sell what?

Fallen birds?

So what. The geese are ours now. They belong to us.

Who told you that? It was no hunt. Just an accident.

- It's our luck. - What luck? It's their misfortune.

We are humans after all. Look how trustful their look is.

They understand that we have saved them.

And what have you decided? I ask you.

- I want a birdie, Daddy. - There will be no birdie.

There will! It was me who fed them.

- And I said, there won't. - Ah, is that so?

I'll never let you forget these geese. Right up to the grave.

- I want a leg. - What? What leg?

Goose. A leg or wing, Daddy.

You can't eat wings. Wings are used to fly.

Hypocrite... Won't spare a wing for his own children.

- Shut up. - Two weeks I've fed them.

Damn those geese.

- You should be ashamed. - Dad!

I'll give you something, wretch! I'll show you!

- Don't touch the children. - Leave me alone.

How much I feel for you...

Your strength and love of freedom are so dear to me.

Mother used to say: It's better to give then to take.

You have given so much...

Well, you too. Even more, I guess.

- Do you love me? - Yes.

It was good that we spared those geese. Spring is coming.

The Dnieper will overflow. For good this time.

The sea is coming.

Can you hear?

The geese have come

Far, far

From afar

Far away land

They have disturbed

The waters

Quiet waters of the Danube

- Goodbye. - Goodbye Sava Andriiovych.

I wish you well... I wish you well...

- I wish you prosperity and health. - Thank you.

Yes. I've missed the main thing.

Love the earth. And our work on the earth.

Otherwise there'll be no happiness for us and our children,

no matter what planet we are on.

Here we are, Moving on again.

Goodbye. And much happiness, city.

I look out at the sea and its far-reaching shore.

And bow my head.

I whisper to all the workers of new sea:

Thank you for the treasures that you have given me.

For the beauty of my life among you.

Please accept my love, my own dear people.

Great river, fine moon.

Pristine seashore.

The end