The reading, “Home Was Never Where the Heart Was: Domestic Dystopias in Russia’s Silent Movie Melodramas” alludes to the melodramas of late imperial Russia as coming out of the tensions that were felt across Russian society as a result of modernisation and industrialisation. Changes, that affected the societal and familial structures of the day. The role of the father as the patriarch (and the Tsar as the ultimate, Russian, patriarch) was beginning to change and women were gaining an increasingly important position in society, reconfiguring social relations.
These tensions were represented through the melodramas of the ‘Domostroi dramas’ and the Merchant Bashkirov’s Daughter certainly illuminates this trend. The film shows the position of the father in direct conflict to his daughter: he wishes her to marry an older man who looks just like him, yet she is adamantly against it. There is thus a tension between the father’s traditional perception of his role as the ultimate authority and the daughter’s own wishes, highlighting the altering familial roles in Russia brought about by the processes of change that had been taking place. I also think that the way in which the father and the potential husband are represented, with the large traditional beards, in contrast to the daughter’s preferred husband who has short hair and no facial hair, further alludes to this distinct tension in Russian society at the time.
The level of violence throughout the film is also interesting, from the scene where the daughter is raped, to her setting fire to the tavern and her hysteria as she watches the tavern burn from her house. This could certainly be a reference to wider societal violence, linking back to the 1905 Revolution and the terrorism that remained persistent in the later Tsarist years.
As a quick final note, from the point of view of today’s films, it is amazing to see how a complex story can be told so well in a silent film! The music, the acting and the limited words that were given in between scenes told so much (and were at times very humorous in their melodrama), and show that films do not need to be as complex as ours today are to tell a great story.