"Forest story” is in many ways a landmark film for our culture and history. This is the first Belarusian film officially released at the facilities of the future Belarusfilm company. Secondly, in the film footage you can see old Minsk, the first half of the 20th century. In addition, one of the main locations for filming was the Czapski palace complex in Pryluki; there is also plenty of footage of this landmark.
The basis for the plot of Lesnaya was the story “The Swineherd” by Mikhas Charot; it is curious that the film could have such a title; the option of Grishka the Swineherd was also considered.
“Forest Story” was released in 1926, a silent film with subtitles, divided into 8 parts. If you watch a digitized film today, you can easily notice that different parts of the film have different quality. In addition, the 3rd part was lost.
Of course the film is interesting to watch to see Czapski Palace, as he was during the filming period.
There are enough interior shots and views with plans of the park facade. The scene where the Polish regiment is moving is priceless in its own way; it shows ice tower.
However, the footage of Priluki can hardly be called “amazing”; after all, the palace has survived to this day in almost the same form. Frames with Minsk, where identifying streets and buildings is already problematic.
There are shots of the completely lost Kosmodemyanskaya street, old Zybitskaya (Torgovaya), Cathedral Square and much more.
Interesting fight scene where the former hotel and inn building is visible.
Minsk from different periods can be seen in a dozen films of the last century, for example 1967 in the film “Beloved” and 1971 in film “World Guy”.