Along with Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin, Alexander Dovzhenko became one of the major pioneers of Soviet filmmaking. During his thirty-year career, his films—including Zvenyhora, Arsenal, Earth, and Ivan—won international acclaim and have become classics of the silent and early sound eras. Combining images from Ukrainian history and folklore, stark realism, visual poetry, propaganda, and gentle humor, his films celebrated nature and our relationship to the land.

Based on archival research in Moscow and Kiev and interviews with Dovzhenko's colleagues and students, George O. Liber provides the first definitive account in any language of this important director's personal and professional life. Liber's biography explores the political context of Dovzhenko's filmmaking, investigates the divisions between his public and private worlds, and analyzes his struggles within and against the Stalinist system.