Gore Sary - 1913
ABOUT THE FILM : Gore Sary
GosFilmoFondSorrows of Sarah
Year: 1913
Sarah and Isaac have been married for ten years but have not succeeded in having children. In the stetl Yiddish, matrimony only makes sense by the conception of an offspring. The community prevails on the individual. The wise men council enforces upon Isaac to repudiate his spouse. By atavism, Isaac accepts and wastes away.
Sorrows of Sarah is a powerful drama. It accuses retrograde values that breed injustice and misfortune. Two future stars are brought on the screen: Ivan Mosjoukine and Viktor Tourjansky.
Nationality: Russian
Actors: Tatiana Shornikova, Alexander Kheruvimov, Praskovia Maksimova , Ivan Mozzhukhin, Vjatcheslav Turzhanskij
Length: 18' 43"
Genre: drama
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: black & white
Producer: Khanzhonkov & K°
Composer: Marc Perrone (2008)
Original language: Russian
A BRIEF HISTORY : Gore Sary
Sorrows of Sarah passes a heavy judgment on the archaism of certain religious practices. The story of this sacrificed couple criticizes the priesthood’s retrograde standpoint.
Before the First World War, many scripts are inspired by Yiddish theater dramas. Aleksandr Arkatov (1889-1961), first director of Jewish films in Russia, begins his career in the Pathé studios in Moscow. He works on several screen adaptations of novels from Yiddish literature, fashionable at the time.
Between 1910 and 1912, the Pathé subsidiary company in Moscow adapts dramas with a Yiddish orchestra accompaniment: L’khaym (To Life), and Got fun Nekome (God of Vengeance) by Sholem Asch. For its part, Gaumont produces Jacob Gordin’s Mirele Efros.
In 1913, Arkatov directs Sorrows of Sarah for the huge A.A. Khanzhonkov & Co studios. Aleksandr Khanzhonkov, real tsarist cinema tycoon, launches several stars, among which Ivan Mosjoukine (1889-1939), here in Isaac’s part. Legendary actor capable of shooting 15 to 20 films per year; he makes his debuts with a touring company before joining the Moscow Theater. Considered a “White Russian”, he flees from the October Revolution, finds refuge in Yalta with Josef Ermolief, another famous producer, and, in Constantinople, embarks for France in 1919.
Ermolief’s Russian company settles in the George Méliès’s studios in Montreuil. The fame of the handsome Ivan Mosjoukine becomes international with Josef Ermolief’s Mystery House, and above all Alexandre Volkoff’s Casanova. As for Arkatov, he stays a while in Russia. He is appointed to the head of the Bolshevik Mos-Kino Komitet. He is commissioned to direct propaganda films addressed to the Jewish public. In 1919, he seeks shelter in the United States where he carries on a career in corporate movies.
The original music for this film was composed by Marc Perrone in 2008.
