Cain and Artem

Pavel Petrov-Bytov was an enfant terrible of the highbrow Leningrad Sovkino film factory. He was notorious for his article “We Have No Soviet Filmmaking,” in which he criticized all the achievements of the Soviet avant-garde. In spite of his beliefs and his scandalous struggle with “bourgeois” and “formalist” filmmaking, Petrov-Bytov directed an aesthetically refined work, shot entirely on set with masterful chiaroscuro lighting: a perfect example of “Soviet expressionism.” Based on a Maxim Gorky story, the plot of Cain and Artem provides a wake-up call to the Russian people to overcome alcoholism and religious factionalism, as it spotlights the (many) drunken denizens of a typical village and their disregard for the Jewish shoemaker Cain.

Country:

Soviet Union

Genre:

Drama

Duration:

85 minutes

Year:

1930

Director:

Pavel Petrov-Bytov

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Company:

Sovkino

Cast:

Cain

Artem

Woman in the Market Place

Husband of Woman in the Market Place

Crew:

Screenplay

Director

Cinematography