The fairy-tale film goes to war: defence of the motherland in Aleksandr Rou’s Kashchei the Immortal

Abstract

ABSTRACT Conceived and shot in the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War (WWII), Kashchei the Immortal (1945) offers a superlative illustration of just how effectively the time-honoured characters and narrative structures of folklore and fairy tale can be adapted to propagandist purpose. In using fairy tale as a nationalistic metaphor for war and conquest, Kashchei built upon longstanding international precedent, even as the particular time and place of its production shaped its ideology in crucial ways. Kashchei’s creators employed fairy-tale allegory to present a rousing parable of invasion and defence, which served as an urgent call to arms while proposing a roadmap for an avowedly righteous Soviet triumph. The film also reinforced the view that the perpetuation of shared national folk tradition cements community strength and spirit, and that folk-mindedness, and the patriotism it must surely inspire, is an indomitable weapon against foreign threat. As I demonstrate through a detailed close textual analysis, the film’s rich symbolism and expressive mise-en-scène are integral to the construction of a reassuring, motivational and easy-to-understand message that fully supported the Soviet Union’s broader wartime rhetoric.