There is hunger in Siberia during the Russian Civil War. One day while dim-witted peasant Sergei is searching corpses for food, he meets a young woman looking for the town of Novokursk. She asks Sergei to help her get there, and to tell anyone they might meet that he is her husband.
Acting
Chaney's wordless longing destroys without a single intertitle.
Direction
Christensen's Siberia feels authentically merciless.
Director
Benjamin Christensen
Lon Chaney
Sergei
Barbara Bedford
Countess Tatiana Alexandrova
Ricardo Cortez
Dimitri
Emily Fitzroy
Mrs. Gaidaroff
Mack Swain
Vladimir Gaidaroff
Károly Huszár
Ivan
Johnny Mack Brown
Russian Officer (uncredited)
Albert Conti
Military Commandant at Novokursk (uncredited)
Jules Cowles
Peasant Who Robs Tatiana (uncredited)
Frank Leigh
Outlaw Peasant in Cabin (uncredited)
Russ Powell
Man Taking Sergei to Ivan (uncredited)
Michael Visaroff
Cossack Whipping Sergei (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Chaney did his own makeup to appear more brutish and 'peasant-like,' reportedly studying Russian prisoners for reference.
Christensen had just been blacklisted in Denmark for witchcraft themes; this was his Hollywood pivot to 'respectable' social drama.
US
