Once Upon a Time There Lived a Simple Woman

Photo

Photo

Once Upon a Time There Lived a Simple Woman

Photo

Once Upon a Time There Lived a Simple Woman

Film Info

Russia 2012 Director: Andrey Smirnov

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Project / Host

European Film Awards

Once Upon a Time There Lived a Simple Woman

Synopsis

Russia, Tambov Province, 1909-1921. The Russian village is experiencing the most difficult of times: World War I, the Russian Revolution, civil war, and famine. Peasants who refuse to obey the new authorities find themselves dispossessed of their land or property, or even murdered.
ONCE UPON A TIME THERE LIVED A SIMPLE WOMAN tells the story of Russia’s destiny during the darkest pages of its history through the life, loves and tragic fate of Varvara, a simple Russian woman.

Cast & Crew

Director

Andrey Smirnov
Screenwriter

Elena Smirnova, Andrey Smirnov
Director of photography

Nikolay Ivasiv, Yuri Shaygardanov
Main Cast

Darya Ekamasova (Varvara), Vlad Abashin (Ivan), Maxim Averin (Alexander), Alexey Serebryakov (Lebeda), Alexey Shevchenkov (Malafey)
Editor (Cut)

Alla Urazbaeva
Original Score

Olga Yukecheva
Production Design

Vladimir Gudilin

Director's comment

Once people started talking about the annihilation of censorship in 1987, I decided that it was my duty to get back to this topic and try to tell what the Russian catastrophe is. And in this organic way, the idea of using the Tambov Rebellion material, also known in Russian history as the ‘Antonov Uprising’, was born.
Peasants were antagonistic towards the Soviet regime. In 1918, Lenin, who hated Russia, its villages and priests, declared a ‘class struggle’ in the countryside. As a result, ‘Poor Peasants Committees’ were created that carried out atrocities throughout the territories subordinate to the Soviet regime.
My work on the script started with a visit to the KGB. Over there I got a few scarce reports and papers. Antonov’s case, which I requested, was never shown to me even in the 1990s. We still do not know what papers are actually kept inside the top secret files. But fortunately, a large number of documents related to the Antonov Uprising were published in the book “Antonovshina” and that was quite enough for me to write the script.