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Russia, the Land of Oppression
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel / [?] 861 or 975? feet
Directed by Edwin S. Porter
Cast: (unknown)
Defender Film Company production; distributed by Motion Picture Distributing & Sales Company. / Assistant director, Arthur Miller [?] (Arthur C. Miller)? / Released 10 June 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The first Defender production.
Drama.
Reviews: [The New York Daily Mirror, 18 June 1910, page ?] In this first release of a new company we find the photography far from satisfactory and the story disconnected and without a discoverable plot. The oppression of the Jews in Russia forms the basis for the film, and when the soldiers enter the synagogue, they all pause and pose while the camera pictures the anguish of the Jews. Then we see the refugees entering America through the Castle Garden, and the film ends with an actor and actress making senseless grimaces at close view as if to indicate how happy they are in the land of the free. // [The Moving Picture World, 25 June 1910, page ?] A very graphic reproduction of the terrible scenes of persecution, which have been enacted among the Hebrew race in Kief [Kiev] and Kishineff [Kishinev]. It is scarcely necessary to describe it. The newspapers and magazines have done this many times over. Happily, the heroine of this picture has the general’s son for a lover, and she is saved from the unmitigated tortures and dishonors of Siberia by his intervention. There is a feeling of exultation when they are shown landing at Ellis Island, the gateway to the land where cruel persecutions of that character do not exist. One acquires a clearer comprehension of what the oppression of Russia means to the unfortunates who suffer under it when it is illustrated like this; and it is safe to say that after this picture the newspaper accounts of such persecutions will be more realistic than they have been heretofore. One may not commend the subject selected, but the manner in which it is worked out and its palpable effect upon the audience may be commended, and those interested in its production congratulated upon their excellent work.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Russia
Listing updated: 29 June 2023.
References: Balshofer-OneReel p. ? : Website-AFI.
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