A Priest Had a Dog (У попа была собака, 1982) by Yelena Prorokova

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A Priest Had a Dog
У попа была собака
U popa byla sobaka (ru)

Year 1982
Director(s) Prorokova Yelena
Studio(s) School of Advanced Studies for Screenwriters and Directors
Soyuzmultfilm
Language(s) Russian
Genre(s) Folklore & myth (Rus./East Slavic)
Misc.
Animation Type(s)  Drawn (cel)
Length 00:06:10
Wordiness 4.51
Animator.ru profile Ru, En
826 visitors

Subtitles:
U popa byla sobaka.1982.en.1.24fps.1636828006.srt
Date: November 13 2021 18:26:46
Language: English
Quality: ok
Upload notes: 263 characters long (view)
Creator(s): Niffiwan, Жукороп



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Description:

A greedy priest kills his pet dog after she gets caught eating one of his sausages, but instantly regrets it and writes an epitaph for her. Based on a never-ending rhyme that all Russian children know.

The rhyme can be read here.

This was Yelena Prorokova's graduation work for the School of Advanced Studies for Screenwriters and Directors. Her artistic supervisor was Yuriy Norshteyn. Armenian director Robert Saakyants was co-author of the screenplay.

The first video above is nicer, but a few seconds from the very beginning are missing (it is the HD 35mm scan from the RuTracker animated film scanning project). The second video has interlacing.

 

DISCUSSION



1.Admin

Cynir tried to add a duplicate entry for this film; here are his plot summary and my comments below:
>There was a priest who killed his beloved dog just because the pet ate a piece of sausage. He immediately regretted it and decided to write on the fence in the hope of exorcising his guilt. That action took him traveling around the world. And when he returned home, he found a scene of devastation in his own house.

>The true meaning of the film is about the maturity in each person's perception, knowing how to put aside small benefits to do great things. However, it probably violated some principles of children's cinema censorship, and was therefore banned by the Soviet government. The film only really came to public attention during the Perestroyka, but unfortunately it remained shunned for decades. It wasn't until 2021 that an anonymous user scanned and uploaded the film to RuTracker with Soyuzmultfilm's approval. It immediately attracted the attention of the film community and led to a debate about its content.

I haven't found any support for the assertion that this cartoon was banned for the government; in fact the LostMedia wiki entry has some quotes from people mentioning that they saw it in a movie theatre at the time in a compilation with other animated shorts in the early 1980s (so certainly not during Perestroika). Although it is true that the film had not been released on home video or digitized since... but it is hardly unique in that.

Also, I've seen no evidence that that user who scanned and posted it (not to RuTracker initially) had Soyuzmultfilm's approval, though they haven't objected either... so who knows.

Nor have I noticed any debate about its content among the "film community" (at least if that means professionals), other than Yuriy Norshteyn praising it (although to be honest, I can no longer find that interview - perhaps I only imagined it?).

P.S. Cynir, I will add the Vietnamese title translation (Vị linh mục có một con chó) once the film has Vietnamese subtitles. ;)


Reply

2.Cynir

This poem belongs to a genre that Vietnamese people often call "vè" (an onomatopoeic and almost meaningless word, it always begins every poem : Ve vẻ vè ve). It always rhymes and is repeated to help children practice their enunciation.


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