''The First Teacher'' (russian: Первый учитель, Pervyy uchitel) is a 1965

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. It is his first full-length work, based on the book by Chinghiz Aitmatov.

Synopsis

The action takes place in the years from 1924 all the way to the early 1950s in the Kurkureu village of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, which is now

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...

. The

Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...

ended not so long ago. Young

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=n ...

member and a former

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

soldier, Dyuyshen, travels to a remote village where he takes up his post as the new teacher for the children of the village. His enthusiasm to bring new ideas immediately faces a centuries-old tradition of life in Central Asia. The former soldier tries to improve the children's literacy but faces opposition from their

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

parents who, moreover, look unfavorably on the idea of a girl joining the school. Dyuyshen meets Altynai, a 15-year-old illiterate girl who has a burning desire to study, but her aunt sells her to a powerful and wealthy

chieftain A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categorized a ...

. The school is burned down. The film ends with the promise of it being rebuilt using a centuries-old tree which had been a source of pride to the villagers.

Cast

* Bolot Beyshenaliyev as The school teacher Dyuyshen * Natalya Arinbasarova as Altynay * Idris Nogajbayev as Narmagambet * Darkul Kuyukova as Koltynay * Kirey Zharkimbayev as Kartynbay * Baken Kydykeeva as Chernukha * Sovetbek Dzhumadylov as Kaimbay

Prizes and awards

* Silver medal and

Volpi Cup for Best Actress The Volpi Cup for Best Actress is an award presented by the Venice Film Festival. It is given by the festival jury in honor of an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance from the films in the competition slate. It is named in honor o ...

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

(1966) - Natalia Arinbasarova * Jussi Award for Best Foreign Director,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

, 1973

References

External links

* * 1965 films Mosfilm films Soviet black-and-white films Films directed by Andrei Konchalovsky Soviet drama films 1965 directorial debut films 1965 drama films 1960s Russian-language films {{USSR-film-stub