Happiness (Russian: Счастье, translit. Schastye) is a 1935 silent satirical slapstick (or rather lubok) comedy set in the Russian Empire before the October Revolution and in the Soviet Union at the time of the collectivization. Medvedkin's original title was The Snatchers or The Possessors (Стяжатели).
The original print featured an experimental color sequence illustrating a poor peasant's dreams of becoming a king. It was the first color production of the Mosfilm studio. According to Medvedkin, "At that time the peasant could not dream of anything multicoloured of beautiful. His dream was limited, and in that the technology helped". The sequence was discarded on account of its poor technical quality and is apparently lost.
Unnoticed on its release, Happiness became well known in the 1960s among film scholars. It was especially championed by Chris Marker who included some excerpts from Happiness in his 1992 documentary The Last Bolshevik.
Happiness (1935) movie
Genres: Comedy, Drama
Production Co: Vostokfilm
Directed by Aleksandr Medvedkin
Writing Credits: Aleksandr Medvedkin
Cinematography by Gleb Troyanski
Cast:
Pyotr Zinovyev as Khmyr - an ill-fated mujik
Yelena Yegorova as Anna Khmyrova - the mujik's wife
Nikolay Cherkasov
Mikhail Gipsi
Taras Platonovich
Viktor Kulakov
V. Lavrentyev
G. Mirgorian
Lidiya Nenasheva
V. Uspensky
