Happiness

A peasant whose surname means Loser sets out to look for happiness. His father died trying to steal a rich neighbour's dumplings. The man has to deal with greedy priests, the tsar's men, a tired horse and a walking granary. What he is after is simple: enough to eat and an easy life. His road ends at the collective farm. Aleksandr Medvedkin wrote and directed the film, one of the last silent pictures made in the Soviet Union. On the face of it, it is a comedy praising collectivisation; but the humour is so exaggerated that it became clear the target was the arrangement itself, and the film was banned for twenty years. It was rediscovered in the sixties, and Chris Marker made two films about Medvedkin that introduced him in the West.