The General Line, also known as Old and New (Russian: Старое и новое, romanized: Staroye i novoye), is a 1929 Soviet propaganda film[1][2] directed by Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov.

[3][4] Hoping to reach a wide audience, the director forsook his usual practice of emphasizing groups by concentrating on a single rural heroine.

Eisenstein briefly abandoned this project to film October: Ten Days That Shook the World, in honour of the 10th anniversary of the Revolution.

Much of the director's montage-like imagery—such as using simple props to trace the progress from the agrarian customs of the 19th-century to the more mechanized procedures of the 20th—was common to both versions of the film.

When Martha's father dies and the inheritance is distributed, she is only left with a cow and a tiny piece of land that is hard to manage.