| Giorgi Saakadze | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Mikheil Chiaureli |
| Starring | Akaki Khorava Veriko Anjaparidze |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Running time | 3h 4min |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Russian |
Giorgi Saakadze (Russian: Георгий Саакадзе, Georgian: გიორგი სააკაძე) is a 1942 Soviet historical drama film directed by Mikheil Chiaureli.[1] The screenplay was written by Anna Antonovskaya and Boris Chenry on the basis of Antonovskaya's 1942 Stalin Prize-winning six-volume novel, Veliky Mouravi (The Great Mouravi). The film is a dramatization of the story of Giorgi Saakadze (portrayed by Akaki Khorava), a 17th-century Georgian political and military leader who was celebrated as a national hero of Georgia in Soviet wartime propaganda. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was personally involved in modifying the movie's script.[2]
The film emphasized that Saakadze, initially an obscure squire, was a victim of machinations at the hands of the wealthy feudal lords who would sacrifice everything, including their motherland, for their own benefit. It intentionally avoided any mention of Saakadze's own attempts to gain political power and illustrated him as a popular leader against the external aggressors. In the atmosphere of suspicion and spy mania in the Soviet Union during these years, the movie also served contemporary propaganda by emphasizing that treason against the popular leader, and hence the country, was to be punished cruelly.[3]
- ^ "Георгий Саакадзе. 1-я серия // Фильмы // Энциклопедия отечественного кино". Archived from the original on 2017-10-21. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
- ^ Dobrenko, Evgeny (2008). Stalinist Cinema and the Production of History: Museum of the Revolution. Edinburgh University Press. p. 42. ISBN 9780748634453.
- ^ Shlapentokh, Vladimir; Chliapentokh, Dmitry (1993). Soviet Cinematography, 1918-1991: Ideological Conflict and Social Reality. Aldine Transaction. pp. 74–75. ISBN 9780202304625.