Dersu Uzala (1975 film)
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- This article is about the Kurosawa film. For an earlier film of the same title, see Dersu Uzala (1961 film).
| Dersu Uzala | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
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| Directed by | Akira Kurosawa |
| Produced by | Yoichi Matsue Nikolai Sizov |
| Written by | Vladimir Arsenyev (book) Akira Kurosawa Yuri Nagibin |
| Starring | Maxim Munzuk Yury Solomin |
| Music by | Isaak Shvarts |
| Cinematography | Asakazu Nakai Yuri Gantman Fyodor Dobronravov |
| Distributed by | Mosfilm (USSR) |
| Release date(s) | July, 1975 (USSR) August 2, 1975 (Japan) October 5, 1976 (USA) |
| Running time | 141 minutes |
| Language | Russian |
| Budget | US$4,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Dersu Uzala (Russian: Дерсу Узала, Japanese: デルス ウザーラ; alternate U.S. title: Dersu Uzala: The Hunter) is a 1975 joint Soviet-Japanese film production directed by Akira Kurosawa.
This film is based on the 1923 memoir of the same title by Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev, about his exploration of the Sikhote-Alin region of Siberia in 1902-10. The film depicts Arsenyev (played by Yury Solomin) leading a series of mapping expeditions in the region, where he and his team soon encounter an old Nanai hunter, Dersu Uzala (1849-1908). Dersu Uzala teaches the men many valuable lessons about wilderness survival and the meaning of life, eventually becoming a close friend of the explorer.
In the film, the Nanai people are referred to by their obsolete Russian name, Gol'ds.
The film won the Grand Prix at the Moscow Film Festival and the 1975 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Since the film was made during the height of the Sino-Soviet confrontation, and its story took place in the disputed Ussuri basin (an island in the Ussuri River almost led the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China to war in 1969), many in China thought that it had a hidden Russian expansionist agenda. Aolei Yilan, a film released in 1979 about the Daur people's resistance against Russian expansion in the Amur region, can be viewed as a response to Dersu Uzala from the Chinese.
The film was shot in now obsolete 70mm film process sometimes called SOVSCOPE 70, originating on 70mm negative film (as opposed to Western conterparts shot on 65mm negative). All known video transfers of the film are originated from 35mm reduction elements.
[edit] External links
- Dersu Uzala at the Internet Movie Database
- Stills from Dersu Uzala with Russian text
- A site dedicated to Dersu Uzala
- Dersu Uzala (Japanese) at the Japanese Movie Database
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| Preceded by Amarcord |
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 1975 |
Succeeded by Black and White in Color |
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