English title: Women of Ryazan.
Alternative titles: The Village of Sin; The Devil's Plaything; The Peasant Women of Ryazan
(*mild spoilers*) Life at a small rural village. Vassili is a rich farmer; his son Ivan falls in love with poor peasant Anna, an orphan. They marry. Vassili's daughter Vassilissa wants to marry poor blacksmith Nikolai, but his father forbids their relationship, so she leaves home to live with him. World War One breaks out and both Nikolai and Ivan are drafted. During Ivan's absence, Vassili rapes Anna.
Mildly interesting as a chronicle of peasants' lives and customs, with some well-filmed sequences, such as of a wedding and of a primitive amusement park. As a narrative, it has an educational slant through a somewhat manicheistic schematism: older women are gossipy and bigotted against their own kind; older men are brutes and satyrs; youngsters are pure and often victimized; etc. It's interesting to notice how some of the U.S. titles of this film didn't seem to get the film's message.
Rating: 37
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