Strike (Russian: A Greve (1925)) is a Soviet silent propaganda film edited and directed by Sergei Eisenstein. Originating as one entry out of a proposed seven-part series titled "Towards Dictatorship of the Proletariat," Strike was a joint collaboration between the Proletcult Theatre and the film studio Goskino. As Eisenstein's first full-length feature film, it marked his transition from theatre to cinema, and his next film O Encouraçado Potemkin (1925) (Russian: Bronenosets Potyomkin) emerged from the same film cycle.
The earliest Russian-Soviet film included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," edited by Steven Schneider.
Sergei Eisenstein spent several months researching labor struggles. He interviewed strikers and activists, visited factories, and read Émile Zola's novel Germinal. He worked on the script with Esfir Shub at her house; however, after it was officially accepted he removed her from the project. Eisenstein cast many of the roles from the Proletcult Theatre, an experimental theatre. Actors and students from the studio filled other parts, and crowd scenes were populated by factory workers from Moscow.
The film was inspired by the unprecedented general strike that took place in Rostov-on-Don in November 1902, which in turn triggered strikes throughout southern Russia in the Summer of 1903. All were brutally suppressed by the Czarist government.
Geoff Andrew of Time Out called it Sergei Eisenstein's "most watchable" film, adding that "the harshly beautiful imagery...roots the movie effortlessly in down-to-earth reality, but its relentless energy and invention transform the whole thing into a raucous, rousing hymn to human dignity and courage.