The Horizon
1962 · Soviet Union · 108 min
- Director
- Iosif Kheifits
- Screenplay
- Grigory Baklanov
- Music
- Nadezhda Simonyan
- Cinematography
- Vadim Derbenyov
- Production company
- Lenfilm
Cast
What it is about
A group of young people travels to the virgin lands of the Soviet Union to work on a newly created state farm and prepare the ground for future crops. The story follows their arrival and first months on the steppe, with its everyday hardships, its tensions, and the relationships among those who run the farm.
How it was made
Directed by Iosif Kheifits and produced by Lenfilm, the film is based on a screenplay by Grigory Baklanov. Vadim Derbenyov handled the cinematography and Nadezhda Simonyan composed the music, while the songs carry lyrics by Bulat Okudzhava. The cast includes Yuri Tolubeyev as the farm director, Boris Chirkov as his deputy and Leonid Bykov as the foreman, alongside a large group of younger actors.
Reception and legacy
The available sources offer few details about its critical and commercial reception, so any evaluation should be approached with caution. The film belongs to Soviet cinema's treatment of the virgin lands campaign, a subject the cinema of the period returned to several times. Today its main interest lies in the record it offers of that agricultural project and of the lives of its young workers.
Stills
Trivia
Lyrics by Bulat Okudzhava
The songs in the film carry lyrics by the poet and singer-songwriter Bulat Okudzhava, one of the best-known figures of Soviet authored song.
More films by Iosif Kheifits
The Lady with the Dog
The Rumyantsev CaseOriginal Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.