«The day will come when equality of all nations and races will become the great and beautiful law of the whole world.»

Nikolay Miklukho-Maklay and Vladimir Kononov in Without Prejudice (1947)

Robert Robinson in Without Prejudice (1947)

Sergei Kurilov

Galina Grigoreva

Mikhail Astangov

Aleksei Speshnyov

Vladimir Volkenshtein

V. Volkenshtejn

The film was shot on the basis of a literary version of the events of the life of the famous Russian ethnographer, anthropologist, biologist and traveler, who studied the indigenous population of Southeast Asia, Australia and Ocea...

Aleksandr Razumnyj

Miklukho-Maklay

Soviet film from the Malokartinie &quot;era of few films&quot; following the Second World War, portraying the antiracist anthropologist and explorer of New Guinea Nikolai Miklouho-Maklay, who wanted to prove scientifically during the 19th century that &quot;all human races are equal&quot;. Shot in Odesa, the Papuan characters are played by Black actors from the Americas and Soviet disguised extras.

At the end of his life, an always ill from tropical fever Nikolai (Sergei Kurilov, Maximka, here for his first great role) tells his whole scientific story. Willing to fight the theory of the superiority of a white race, he sails around the world to go to study the less known people of New Guinea. During his trip, he meets Margarita (Galina Grigoreva, Kashchei the Immortal), the daughter of the former Prime Minister of the Australian New South Wales Robertson (Aleksey Maksimov, The Fifth Ocean), and falling in love together, she promises to wait for him. But another man, the German Brandler (Mikhail Astangov, a famous theater actor having featured Hitler in the later Battle of Stalingrad), who wants &quot;the German eagle to spread its wings over all the seas and the oceans of the world&quot;, is decided to &quot;shadow his footsteps&quot;, and appoints a sailor, Thomson (Georgiy Budarov, Professor Mamlok), to spy on him.

Arriving on the northeast coast of New Guinea, Nikolai gets ashore with Thomson and a young African, Boy (Jim Komogorov, son of an Afro-American member of the Communist Party of the United States and a Russian working girl). Here he meets the Papuan, living like &quot;in the Stone Age&quot;, and decides to communicate unarmed but with &quot;an anthropological compass and an umbrella&quot;, only with &quot;kindness and truth&quot;. Nikolai becomes friend with Ur (Weyland Rodd, a Black American actor settled in Soviet Union, Fifteen-Year-Old Captain), but Malu (Robert Robinson, a Jamaican worker in USSR) remains defiant.

Shall Nikolai, while sharing their &quot;joy and sorrow&quot;, manage to get the friendship and esteem of the Papuan tribes? Shall he succeed in gathering in his materialist point of vue the scientific and definite proofs of the unicity and equality of humanity? Shall he be able to thwart the tricks of Brandler and his henchman Thomson, the real &quot;savages&quot; indeed, who want to embezzle his scientific work in order to make Germany colonize this part of New Guinea? Shall he finally retrieve his beloved Margarita to share with her his passion for science and mankind?

The film, emphasizing Maklay&apos;s scientific methods which destroy &quot;the claim of profound differences between races&quot; and such things as dolichocephalic supremacy or Victorian prejudices, is obviously targeting the racist Nazi ideology which has just devastated the world, Nikolai&apos;s main opponent being thus a German, but also aims at racism in the Western and now rival countries, with an England &quot;responsible for the total extermination of the natives of Tasmania&quot;, and the USA used to prove that &quot;standards of humanity do not apply to Black people&quot;. And &quot;for money has no fatherland&quot;, they are all &quot;bound together by the instinct of colonial masters&quot;. Ode to human fraternity, the film follows the destiny of these different characters confronted to &quot;powerful ennemies&quot; but sharing together hope for the future.

Soviet film from the Malokartinie "era of few films" following the Second World War, portraying the antiracist anthropologist and explorer of New Guinea Nikolai Miklouho-Maklay, who wanted to prove scientifically during the 19th century that "all human races are equal". Shot in Odesa, the Papuan characters are played by Black actors from the Americas and Soviet disguised extras.

At the end of his life, an always ill from tropical fever Nikolai (Sergei Kurilov, Maximka, here for his first great role) tells his whole scientific story. Willing to fight the theory of the superiority of a white race, he sails around the world to go to study the less known people of New Guinea. During his trip, he meets Margarita (Galina Grigoreva, Kashchei the Immortal), the daughter of the former Prime Minister of the Australian New South Wales Robertson (Aleksey Maksimov, The Fifth Ocean), and falling in love together, she promises to wait for him. But another man, the German Brandler (Mikhail Astangov, a famous theater actor having featured Hitler in the later Battle of Stalingrad), who wants "the German eagle to spread its wings over all the seas and the oceans of the world", is decided to "shadow his footsteps", and appoints a sailor, Thomson (Georgiy Budarov, Professor Mamlok), to spy on him.

Arriving on the northeast coast of New Guinea, Nikolai gets ashore with Thomson and a young African, Boy (Jim Komogorov, son of an Afro-American member of the Communist Party of the United States and a Russian working girl). Here he meets the Papuan, living like "in the Stone Age", and decides to communicate unarmed but with "an anthropological compass and an umbrella", only with "kindness and truth". Nikolai becomes friend with Ur (Weyland Rodd, a Black American actor settled in Soviet Union, Fifteen-Year-Old Captain), but Malu (Robert Robinson, a Jamaican worker in USSR) remains defiant.

Shall Nikolai, while sharing their "joy and sorrow", manage to get the friendship and esteem of the Papuan tribes? Shall he succeed in gathering in his materialist point of vue the scientific and definite proofs of the unicity and equality of humanity? Shall he be able to thwart the tricks of Brandler and his henchman Thomson, the real "savages" indeed, who want to embezzle his scientific work in order to make Germany colonize this part of New Guinea? Shall he finally retrieve his beloved Margarita to share with her his passion for science and mankind?

The film, emphasizing Maklay's scientific methods which destroy "the claim of profound differences between races" and such things as dolichocephalic supremacy or Victorian prejudices, is obviously targeting the racist Nazi ideology which has just devastated the world, Nikolai's main opponent being thus a German, but also aims at racism in the Western and now rival countries, with an England "responsible for the total extermination of the natives of Tasmania", and the USA used to prove that "standards of humanity do not apply to Black people". And "for money has no fatherland", they are all "bound together by the instinct of colonial masters". Ode to human fraternity, the film follows the destiny of these different characters confronted to "powerful ennemies" but sharing together hope for the future.

The film was shot on the basis of a literary version of the events of the life of the famous Russian ethnographer, anthropologist, biologist and traveler, who studied the indigenous population of Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania. In 1869, Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay made a report in the Geographical Society about the need to study the indigenous population of the islands of Oceania. The Society Council decided to support his undertaking and, after receiving small funds, the scientist on the warship Vityaz leaves for New Guinea. Not wanting to impose his presence on the inhabitants of the village located on the shore, Nikolai Nikolayevich settles in the distance, in a house built by sailors from Vityaz for him. From now on, his goal is to understand the environment. The natives of the island knew how to build beautiful ships. The figures on the pies, on the trees on the shields were nothing more than the first manifestation of ideographic writing. The dexterity with which the natives performed various works was striking, although they were carried out by primitive tools. Miklouho-Maclay carefully recorded all the observations in a special notebook, which he kept from the first day of his stay on the island. From unusual and difficult living conditions in the rainforest, Nikolai Nikolaevich was seriously ill. It was no less difficult for his companions. The first teenager died of the fever, then the white servant Thomson, who before his death managed to admit that he had spied on the Russian scientist on behalf of Dr. Brandler. After a long absence, Miklouho-Maclay returns to Sydney. Margarita Robertson, whom he married after seven years of separation, becomes his faithful companion and assistant in scientific work. The penetration of the German Association in the South Seas to New Guinea and the active participation of its representative, Dr. Brandler, made Miklouho-Maclay take a tough stance. He will face a difficult struggle for the recognition of his point of view, which was formed in the course of work with material accumulated over many years of travel.

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