 Not all of the commentary and examination of Bezhin Meadow was overtly negative , however . In the years after the film closed its production , studios and film organizations in major Russian cities including Moscow , Leningrad , and Kiev held seminars to examine the lessons of the film , with some of the sessions lasting days . A former student of Eisenstein , Peotr Pavlenko , defended Eisenstein 's work in the wake of Bezhin Meadow . Grigori Alexandrov , a filmmaker Eisenstein with whom had worked previously , was denounced for " raising himself above the community " because he did not speak out against his associate . Esfir Shub suggested that as Eisenstein was not present in the USSR during the First Five @-@ Year Plan , he was unable to correctly present modern political lessons . The set @-@ piece in Bezhin Meadow where the villagers desecrate the village church in response to Stepok 's death , which was removed in later versions of the film , has been called " one of the great set @-@ pieces in cinema " , and a further demonstration of the Biblical imagery featured in the film . Among such visuals from the desecration sequence were an image of a girl in a mirror , framed as the Virgin Mary , and a statue of a crucified Christ held as if it were in a pietà . Ivor Montagu likened Eisenstein 's struggles with the film to Galileo 's conflict with the Inquisition . In spite of the heavy criticisms he faced , Eisenstein was allowed by the politburo to continue his career , and he created and released the film Alexander Nevsky in 1938 . 
