“Alexander Nevsky” movie poster, directed by S. Eisenstein. 1938.

Artist A. Belsky

Alexander Nevsky is a 1938 Soviet historical drama film directed by Sergei Eisenstein. It portrays the 13th-century attempt by the Teutonic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire to invade Novgorod, and their eventual defeat by Prince Alexander, later known as Alexander Nevsky (1220 – 1263).

Eisenstein made the film in collaboration with Dmitri Vasilyev, working from a script co-written with Pyotr Pavlenko. Vasilyev and Pavlenko were brought in to help keep Eisenstein from straying into “formalism” and to ensure the production stayed on schedule. The film was produced by Goskino through the Mosfilm studio, with Nikolai Cherkasov starring in the title role and a score composed by Sergei Prokofiev. Alexander Nevsky was Eisenstein’s first sound film and remains the most popular of the three he directed. In 1941, Eisenstein, Pavlenko, Cherkasov, and Nikolai Abrikosov received the Stalin Prize for their work on the film.

In 1978, the Italian publishing house Arnoldo Mondadori Editore ranked Alexander Nevsky among the 100 greatest motion pictures of all time in an international poll.