Original subtitles

A FILM BY ALEXANDER MEDVEDKIN

PRODUCED IN 1934 BY MOSKINO KOMBINAT STUDIO

HAPPINESS

Or the story of unlucky Khmyr,

his horse-wife Anna,

his wealthy neighbour Foka.

To the last lazy kolkhozian.

What is happiness?

That's what I call living like a tsar!

Sixty years I've slaved and I've never tasted vareniki.

And the old man swore he would not die

until he had tasted some of those cakes.

One broken padlock, 1 rouble 50.

Planks for coffin, 2 roubles 15.

And for the nails, 65 kopeks.

The money! Quick, the money!

Go and find happiness

and don't come back empty-handed.

At the same time, in Tyr, lived Saint Epiphany.

Take those 5 kopeks, father!

Buy something nice for your wife!

We'll light a candle to Saint Epiphany.

To the left, of death thou shalt die.

Straight on, of death thou shalt expire.

Right, thou shalt neither die nor live.

A merchant was returning from the market...

Swimming or diving, I shall have that money!

Why did you die, grandfather?

Here is happiness!

But the horse had a voracious appetite

and Khmyr had no more hay to give it.

Sweet Jesus! You who gave me this horse...

Lord, give me a life of ease and plenty.

My master!

"If I were tsar,

"I'd eat but the fat of the bacon..."

Bloodsucker!

Atheist!

Split the harvest 50/50.

And Khmyr had a bumper harvest.

One in the field, seven at the feast!

For this, for that, for the tax, for the arrears...

For the hay, labour, seed,

harrow, wheat, potatoes

and the coffin.

Help! Stop, thief!

For ten years I've been a thief in Voroneje.

For three years I stripped Tsarevo-Kokchaisk bare.

And never has anyone cheated me like this.

Locks, padlocks and dogs, all to guard nothing!

Respected guests, is it my fault?

Fortune simply refuses my company.

You vulture!

Here's one rouble twenty, go to bed!

I'm going to die!

If the moujik dies,

you'll have to explain it to the tsar and to God!

Sacrilege! Do you think you can die without permission?

If the moujik dies, who will feed Russia?

Who gave you permission to die all alone?

So you rebel, you dog!

Who gave you the right to an improvised death?

Whip him till he bleeds but keep him alive!

So they whipped Khmyr for thirty years and three.

And they shot him on 12 fronts.

And 7 times they killed him in the Carpathians.

All of which made him lose all faith in happiness.

And even when he found himself in a kolkhoz,

he was the worst of water-bearers.

Anna was happy and she bloomed.

Find Khmyr, comrades!

The engine needs water.

Foka, the enemy who was spared, was still around.

He'll not turn his nose up at what's offered on a plateau.

I'll report you, you lazybones!

And I'll put you on a charge, you alcoholic!

Let me go, Annushka,

leave the kolkhoz and be free!

Outside, I'm my own boss, my own master...

Are you afraid of being without bread all winter?

Stay here and guard your kolkhoz's harvest.

Guard it like the apple of your eyes!

But on this land there were still rogues.

Anna Khmyrova, 283 units of work.

A priest can die, then!

Go, Khmyr! We'll never make a man of you!

Why are you crying, Khmyr?

How could I not cry?

I cannot live like before.

I don't know how to live like now.

Come, my dear Khmyr.

I shall teach you how we can live...

THE END

Subtitles by Howard Bonsor

Subtitling by TVS - TITRA FILM