Nordlandiia is one of the many fictional countries in cinema. It features in Lunacharskii's play and in a 1923 movie based on the play. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Слесарь_и_Канцлер
In movies that employ fictional countries, very often the beginning of the movie is crucial to gleaning information about the country, such as its location and the reasons why we never heard of it before. Sadly, the 1st part of this movie is missing.
Nordlandiia in the movie is at war with Gallikaniia, an equally fictional land; the name of the former suggests its northern location, the name of the later, perhaps, hints at France, the Gallic land. Moreover, the land has to deal with a revolution.
From the movie we do not learn much about Nordlandiia. Its language and peculiarities of its culture are not crucial to the movie creators (at least not in the preserved parts), and all communication seems to be in Russian. We do know that it is at first a monarchy but then a revolution comes.
Though we learn a name of one of the cities of Nordlandiia -- which might be its capital, -- one of the telegrams gives us a beautiful case of omission. A character is summoned to go to the capital of Nordlandiia which is not called by name -- even though this roundabout way is most likely more expensive, given that it is a telegram.
A bird with its wings spread as an emblem (of the country?) -- not an unusual choice. See Le Sceptre d'Ottokar. This one can also hint at Russia, a country that saw a revolution several years before the movie was made.
These pictures were taken for private use only. Please do not copy them!
In movies that employ fictional countries, very often the beginning of the movie is crucial to gleaning information about the country, such as its location and the reasons why we never heard of it before. Sadly, the 1st part of this movie is missing.
Nordlandiia in the movie is at war with Gallikaniia, an equally fictional land; the name of the former suggests its northern location, the name of the later, perhaps, hints at France, the Gallic land. Moreover, the land has to deal with a revolution.
From the movie we do not learn much about Nordlandiia. Its language and peculiarities of its culture are not crucial to the movie creators (at least not in the preserved parts), and all communication seems to be in Russian. We do know that it is at first a monarchy but then a revolution comes.
Seems that Nordlandiia is a European land, since "the future of Europe" is referred to.
This seemingly absurd, elusive way of dealing with geographic names occurs in other stories of fictional countries and -- with or without the author's intention -- reminds us that the country does not exist and that there are some things about it, for example, a name of its city, that we will never learn.
These pictures were taken for private use only. Please do not copy them!
No comments:
Post a Comment