Summary
In Edwin Carewe's 1927 adaptation of the Tolstoy classic, Prince Dimitri's youthful indiscretion sets off a catastrophic chain of events for Katusha, an orphaned peasant girl. What begins as a fleeting summer romance in a rural district curdles into a lifelong sentence of suffering when Katusha is cast out, pregnant and disgraced, by the very family she served. Her descent from a hopeful girl to a hardened survivalist on the streets of St. Petersburg is a brutal indictment of class disparity. When Dimitri, now a man of high standing, finds himself seated on the jury of Katusha's murder trial, the film shifts into a psychological exploration of guilt. Though she is innocent of the poisoning charge, the machinery of the state and Dimitri's own past negligence ensure her exile to Siberia. The narrative follows their final, somber reconciliation in the frozen wastes, where Dimitri seeks a redemption that Katusha, perhaps rightfully, refuses to fully grant him.
Synopsis
Prince Dimitri comes from St. Petersburg to spend the summer in a rural district and falls in love with Katusha, an orphaned peasant girl who works for his relatives. Later, en route to the Turkish-Russian front, Dimitri's regiment bivouacs near the village, and Katusha secretly yields to his passion. Her condition soon arouses the suspicions of her aunt, and she is sent from the home in disgrace. Bereft by the death of her infant, Katusha is eventually reduced to surviving as a prostitute, and finds herself imprisoned on a charge of poisoning and robbing a merchant. Dimitri, summoned to the jury at her trial, feels his responsibility and agrees to marry her. Although innocent of the crime, Katusha is banished to Siberia. Their old love is rekindled, but she refuses to become his wife and bears her exile alone.
