Alexander Dovzhenko

Ukraine, in wheat, apples, horses and wind, is what Dovzhenko filmed, holding a single image far longer than the story needs it. Earth, his best-known film, follows a village through life, death and the harvest, Zvenigora and Arsenal mix Ukrainian folklore with war and revolution. Aerograd, made in the sound era, is about a new airfield town in the Siberian far east under threat from Japan.

Signature

• Lyrical montage: fruit, fields and faces held in stillness.
• Ukrainian folklore and landscape.
• Revolution and collectivisation seen from the village.
• Death placed inside the natural cycle (Earth).