Controversial film director

The best Ukrainian silent motion pictures were Olexandr Dovzhenko's three films, which won him the reputation as “the first poet of cinema” – “Zvenyhora”, “Arsenal”, and particularly “Zemlia” (The Land, 1930). In 1968 an international jury included “Zemlia” among the 12 best films in world cinematography. However, he has been regretfully still one of the most neglected major filmmakers of the 20th century, who has never come close to receiving his due.
 
“Having recently seen half a dozen of his films, some for the first time, I can't think of any other film-maker who has dealt as comprehensively, as beautifully, and as profoundly with death - or who has, for the same reasons, so many things to say about what it means to be alive” – wrote one of Washington Post staff writers after a recent broad retrospective of Dovzhenko movies in the USA.
 
Dovzhenko developed his own style in the art of motion pictures and trained a group of actors according to its demands. A separate school of camera work in the Ukrainian cinema emerged under Dovzhenko. In 1932, Dovzhenko completed his first sound film, ‘Ivan’. After this he was accused of being a Ukrainian nationalist and was forced to live as though in exile in Moscow for the rest of his life producing mainly propaganda movies ordered by Stalin.
 
“If I had to choose between beauty and truth, I would choose beauty. I dreamed of creating something great and joyful for people during the whole life, but I have not done it. I am a stepson of authority" - concluded Dovzhenko at the end of his life.