Journey Beyond Three Seas
- Oleg Strischenow: Afanassi Nikitin
Ride across three oceans is a Soviet- Indian Khwaja Ahmad Abbas adventure film directed by Vasily Pronin and from 1957 after the trip report of the Russian explorer Afanassi Nikitin.
Action
Afanassi Nikitin was born in Tver. His hometown was part of the Russian state, which was created with Moscow as the center on the upper reaches of the Volga. A restless heart, the young businessman, he traveled frequently. But his whole desire was that distant land of which he had heard so many wonderful things.
In the fall of 1466 the time has come, Nikitin leaves Tver, he has a passenger connected, wants to Persia. In his luggage is the diary that allows 500 years later to trace his way and give Nikitin its rightful place.
A lot of it has to write down. Since that night, the Tartars invaded the travelers. The path seems already over, but Nikitin saves himself. He has only the bare life, but the goal he does not forget. On foot he drags himself. There is the desert. The thirst, the heat and sand, just sand. A fraudster robs him of the last. Nikitin pursued him, it's a tedious thing. When he presents the robber, he has reached the sea. Somewhere out there on the horizon, it must be: the fairy tale land of India. A ship takes him. New Leiden, storms and towering waves, the water supply is low - again Nikitin believes that this was the end. Since land is in sight. It is the land of his desire. After two years Nikitin is on target. The first Russian to enter the Indian soil. New adventures have to be. He finds friends. As is the singer Sakaram; there's the girl Champa family, which he rescues from death by snake venom; there is the Hoftänzerin Lakshmi, which is able to express everything with the movements of the dance.
But above all is the country with his puzzles. The blue sky, the rainy season, trees had never seen the Nikitin, temples with high idols, spices and precious stones ...
One day white Afanassi Nikitin, that he has to leave again. Tver, which is home to the endless plains, the snow of winter clear, then, he must return. Must bring client from India and mediator between the two peoples.
No less torturous reaching back the hike. After five years Nikitin re-enters Russian soil. But he will not come to Tver. Move, in a monastery, he dies of exhaustion. However, his report, his life throughout the ages. Is today a customer of a daring explorer, a man of the great Russian people.
Background
That fabled land of Ophir, which is mentioned in the Old Testament - it could well have been India, many scientists speculate. If this thesis, however, has not proven so it is clear that the exploration of a route to India has always played an important role in the thoughts of the great explorers. But it is little known that already in 1468 a Russian businessman, Afanassi Nikitin, the shores of the vast empire entered.
At this time the first explorers, Magellan did not live yet; the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama was not until thirty years later the sea route to India, and the Genoese Columbus, who discovered America while believed that he had landed on the east coast of India, was just 17 years old. Only the Venetian Marco Polo ( 1292 ) and the Arab Ibn Battuta ( 1333) have traveled to India and reported it.
Awards
- International Film Festival of Cannes 1958 nominated for the Palme d'Or
- Filmfare Award / Best Art Direction at MR Acharekar (1958 )
Reviews
" Colourful conversation with a mass array of contributors and interesting insights into the Indian mindset, culture and landscape. In his humanist attitude persuasive, technically rather average and with a few lengths. "