Overview
The film is a 1999 drama directed by Mihalis Kakogiannis, and features characters such as Alan Bates, Owen Teale, and Charlotte Rampling. The movie is based on a play by Anton Chekhov from 1904 under the same title. Anton Chekhov was a renowned play-writer and this was his last work which offered others a chance to alter the intended-nature of the play. The initial intent was to make it a comedy, although it has been reproduced as a tragedy in most instances.
Outline
The film relates to the family of a noble Russian woman as they head back to their family estate. The title of the film/play is derived from this estate that includes a large cherry orchard that is to be auctioned so as to finance a mortgage. The family initially does not respond to the options that would save the estate and this leads to its sale. At the end of the film, the family leaves the estate with the sound of the cherry orchard being cut down in the background. The estate is sold to the son of a former slave farm worker. Themes of cultural futility are apparent in the plot of the film, where aristocracy strives to maintain its eminence and the middle-class people try to make sense of newly acquired material wealth.
Impression
It is not easy for the audience in 1996 to relate to the social-economic forces depicted by the film, but they indicate the forces that were in play when the play was composed. The middle class was rising in the wake of the abolition of serfdom in the mid-19t century in Russian, and even though it is a bit dated, people can learn about the changes in society that nurtured the one that prevails today.