Ona zashchishchayet rodinu

original title:
Ona zashchishchayet rodinu
other titles:
No Greater Love, She Defends Her Motherland, She Defends Her Country
country / year of production:
Soviet Union / 1943
original length:
74 min. , black/white
premiere:
USA: 24 February 1944
genre:
melodrama
based on:
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plot synopsis:
As the Nazi forces advance on Moscow, Ivanovna, a village woman must witness how her husband is killed in combat and her toddler run over by a German tank. When finally her village is commandeered by Nazi forces, she organizes the surviving locals into a guerilla band bent on revenge.
keywords:
women during wartime , resistance, opposition , partisans , tanks
war:
Second World War (1939-1945)
literature:
remarks:
American audiences never saw complete copy of the film because the savagery of the Russian women combatants was considered too intense and therefore cut down to 68 minutes.

Critics who saw the original version praised it to the skies, in keeping with the then-popular intellectual allegiance with the Soviet cause. Only a few years later at the height of the McCarthy era, the same critics had difficulties justifing their opinion.
availability: