"Yekaterina Voronina" is a 1957 Soviet melodrama directed by Isidor Annensky and based on the novel of the same name by Anatoly Rybakov. The title role was played by Lyudmila Khityaeva. A significant part of the location shooting took place in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), which is why the film preserved rare views of the city from the mid-1950s.[1]

About the film

The screenplay was based on the novel of the same name by Anatoly Rybakov. The film tells the story of Yekaterina Voronina, a Volga woman who lived through the loss of loved ones, the Great Patriotic War, and betrayal, but kept the strength to find her place in life and to find love.[2] In the plot, Yekaterina graduates from the operations department and goes to work as an engineer at the Gorky River Port, where most of the action takes place.[3]

Filming in Nizhny Novgorod

Filming covered both the lower and the upper parts of the city.[1] The main location for exterior shooting was the Strelka, where the Gorky River Port was located in those years: the frame shows port warehouses along the Oka, gantry cranes, and the railway spur leading to the berths; the view of the Kanavinsky Bridge serves as a landmark.[3][4]

Besides the port area, the following places appeared on camera:

  • The old building of the Moscow Railway Station — appears in scenes set in the lower part of the city.[2]
  • Verkhne-Volzhskaya Embankment — filmed in the upper part of the city.[2][4]
  • The Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin — visible in panoramic shots.[2]
  • Minin Street — appears in the frame in scenes set in the upper town.[2][4]
  • Gorky Nizhny Novgorod State Academic Drama Theater — recognizable by the distinctive decor of its facade; the characters visit the theater.[3][4]
  • Voznesensky Pechersky Monastery and the adjoining Pechersky Descent — visible in the opening episodes of the film; near the monastery gates, a scene at the home of one character's mother was filmed.[3]
  • Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, building 7 — the courtyard with an arch and gates was used in the war episodes: presumably, a hospital was located here according to the plot.[3]

The opening scenes of the film, with their wooden buildings and staircase, were apparently shot in the former sloboda (settlement) of Koshelyovka, which adjoined the Pechersky Monastery and had already disappeared by the 1950s.[3]

Significance for the city's history

"Ekaterina Voronina" is considered one of the most complete visual documents of the appearance of Gorky in the mid-1950s.[4] The footage preserves views of the river port at the Strelka with its warehouses and cranes, which were later demolished, as well as the wooden buildings of the slobodas, which vanished during the subsequent reconstruction.[3] The film is described as one of the best-known Soviet motion pictures shot on Nizhny Novgorod soil.[1]

Sources

  1. nn.aif.ru — Life as in the movies. Which films were shot in Nizhny Novgorod? — AiF Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  2. KP — Nizhny Novgorod — "The Barber of Siberia," "On the Game," and "A Couple from the Future": Remembering popular films shot in Nizhny Novgorod
  3. ipbatman.blogspot.com
  4. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — All the films on one map: where and when movies were shot in Nizhny Novgorod (07/31/2024)