Quiet Flows the Don (Тихий Дон / Tikhiy Don 1957)

Quiet Flows the Don (Тихий Дон / Tikhiy Don) is an epic 1957 Soviet film directed by Sergei Gerasimov. Split into three parts, the film is based on the legendary novel of the same name by Mikhail Sholokhov. The first two parts of the film came out in 1957, while the third and final part was released in 1958. All together, the film is a six-hour long, slow-burning classic that vividly portrays the gripping story of the Don Cossacks through some of the most dramatic times in Russian history.
The film takes place between 1912 and 1922, and so depicts Russia’s transformation from Imperial autocracy to Soviet new world order, via the First World War and Russian Civil War.

The focus of the plot is the Melikhov family, who are Don Cossacks living in the village of Tatarski. The family includes Pantelia, the father, his sons, Grigory and Piotr, and the sons’ wives, Natalia and Daria. In particular, the plot revolves around Grigory and his extramarital lover, Aksiniya. Before the outbreak of the First World War, the Melikhov family’s lives are peaceful, revolving around ancestral habits and traditions. Of course, World War One, subsequent Russian Revolution, and resultant Civil War turn their whole worlds upside down.