Vladimir Bogdankevich

This is the second part of a projected three-part epic biopic of Russian Czar Ivan Grozny, undertaken by Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein at the behest of Josef Stalin. Production of the epic was stopped before the third part could be filmed, due to producer dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's introducing forbidden experimental filming techniques into the material, more evident in this part than the first part. As it was, this second part was banned from showings until after the deaths of both Eisenstein and Stalin, and a change of attitude by the subsequent heads of the Soviet government. In this part, as Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate him.

Based on the short story by Jack London. 1910 year. Mexican patriots are preparing an uprising against the dictatorship of Diaz. Young Felipe Rivera joins the revolutionary junta, whose father and mother were shot by dictators. The hour of rebellion is near, but the heroes lack weapons. To get the necessary amount of money, Rivera decides to perform in the ring against Ward, America’s strongest boxer...

Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.

When German knights invade Russia, Prince Alexander Nevsky must rally his people to resist the formidable force. After the Teutonic soldiers take over an eastern Russian city, Alexander stages his stand at Novgorod, where a major battle is fought on the ice of frozen Lake Chudskoe. While Alexander leads his outnumbered troops, two of their number, Vasili and Gavrilo, begin a contest of bravery to win the hand of a local maiden.

On one of the October nights at the ball, gymnasium pupils and officers scoff at the love of Kuzma Zakharkin, the “cook's son”, to Lena, the daughter of the manufacturer. Cannon volley interrupts the fun. In the city begins the Moscow armed uprising of workers. At the center of the fate of two families is the capitalist Leontyev and the worker Zakharkin, whose sons became the organizers and participants of this uprising.