SIBERIAN SAGA Episodes 1 and 2 (drama, directed by Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky, 1977)

"Sibiriada" – four films about Siberia, its people, and the turbulent 20th century. Each film, through newsreels and novels, depicts a historical period and links it to the fates of the heroes. At the beginning of the 20th century, an escaped political prisoner, Rodion Klimentov, arrives in the Siberian village of Elan. A brief encounter with him and his stories about the utopian dream of Tomaso Campanella – the City of the Sun – sink into the soul of a young boy, poor Kolka Ustyuzhanin. After the revolution, Nikolai Ustyuzhanin clashes with the wealthy neighbor Solomin. He must leave the village, and his fiancée Nastya flees with him from the Solomin family. In the 1930s, the communist Nikolai Ustyuzhanin returns to his native village to explore Siberia’s natural resources. Yet the old man remains alive and is killed by Spiridon Solomin. Nikolai’s son, Alyoshka, witnesses the murder, escapes from Elan, and dreams of avenging his father. He goes to the front and returns only 20 years later as a foreman of oil workers.