Silva (film)

Silva (Сильва) is a 1944 Soviet musical comedy film directed by Aleksandr Ivanovsky and starring Zoya Smirnova-Nemirovich and Sergei Martinson. It was part of a cycle of operetta films made in European cinema during the era.

Cast

 * Zoya Smirnova-Nemirovich as Silva Varescu
 * Niyaz Dautov as Edvin
 * Margarita Sakalis as Stassi
 * Sergey Martinson as Boni
 * Sergey Dybcho as Leopold Volyapyuk
 * Nina Dintan as Julianna Volyapyuk
 * Georgiy Kugushev as Ferry
 * Vladimir Taskin as Rons Volyapyuk
 * Aleksandra Korvet as the maid
 * Aleksandr Matkovsky as assistant director
 * Glikeriya Bogdanova-Chesnokova as Princess Weglersheim

Production
The film is an adaptation of the 1915 operetta Die Csárdásfürstin (also known as Silva after its title character) composed by Emmerich Kalman with a libretto by Leo Stein and Bela Jenbach. The first staging of the operetta took place in Russia in 1916 in St. Petersburg during the war with Germany, but patriotism required to change the title of operetta from Queen of Czardas to the neutral Silva in Russia. The Soviet movie Silva was made at the Sverdlovsk Film Studios in Yekaterinburg.

Popularity
The film proved a major success with Soviet audiences, who during the later stages of the Second World War sought escapist entertainment and largely rejected films with war themes. The money it earned per copy of the film issued exceeded even that of the most popular films of the year Guilty Without Fault.