Turksib (1929) + Salt for Svanetia (1930)
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC 4:3 | 57 mins + 52 mins | 4,16 Gb
Score AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | English intertitles / Russian intertitles with English subs
Genre: Documentary
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC 4:3 | 57 mins + 52 mins | 4,16 Gb
Score AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | English intertitles / Russian intertitles with English subs
Genre: Documentary
Turksib (1929) - IMDB
In Turksib (1929), made by Vostok-Kino in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, Turin chronicles the construction of a new railroad linking the textile industry of southern Siberia with the wool and cotton producing regions of Kazakhstan. His treatment of the harsh beauty of the Kazakh steppe is breathtaking, its endless sandy expanses sculpted by the wind into weird abstract patterns. To illustrate the need for a reliable connection between the textile industry and its suppliers, he shows a long caravan of camels overtaken and submerged by a violent sandstorm. Pumping pistons and speeding locomotives provide the solution. Turin uses many of the same techniques (visual metaphors, striking informational graphics, allegorical montage) seen in other Soviet documentaries of the period, but with unusual taste and restraint.
Salt for Svanetia (1930) - IMDB
Kalatozov’s Salt for Svanetia (1930), is an isolated village high in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia. Made by the Georgian state studio with Kalatozov as cameraman, it bears an introductory quotation from Lenin: “The Soviet Union is a country so big and diverse that every kind of social and economic way of life is to be found within it.” So Kalatozov (who was himself of Georgian origin) spends most of his time showing the bizarre, vivid world of the Svan community, living a highly ritualized and brutal existence to which the cinematography lends a mythological dimension. The village’s problem is that it has no salt with which to support life for both humans and animals. Graphic images of death and suffering abound. Only the arrival of a Bolshevik brigade in the film’s final moments promises relief.
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Stirring, with countless lovely images: the camels cresting the dune casting spectacular shadows, the sand sliding down the slope after the simoon, the incredible faces of the Asiatic peasants, as they stoically wait for their water. And who cares about the political content of any of these early Soviet films? Let's not be anachronistic. Remember that they were intended to educate a vastly disparate population, and to inspire them. To complain about the propaganda is similar to watching horror films and then objecting to their "scare tactics", even if they are skillfully done.IMDB Reviewer
This early Kalatozov documentary about hardships in a remote village in Georgia shows that all his ideas and inventions were with him from the start. Though not the unadulterated festival of inconceivable images that his later films became, this is still full of plenty of unforgettable sequences. In one scene villagers are using an old, rickety pulley to bring water up a tower. It starts out cutting from a simple shot of the water bucket to a simple shot of the villagers, then the cutting becomes faster and faster and the shots get closer and closer and the camera swings back and forth with the villagers as they heave and how and then suddenly a cut is made to the perspective of the water inside the bucket as it gets pulled up the tower. This is merely a single example of the many unforgettable things to be seen in this film. Highly recommended for anyone interested in documentaries and especially early Soviet cinema, and this is absolutely essential viewing for any fans of I AM CUBA or THE CRANES ARE FLYING.IMDB Reviewer
Special Features: None
Landmarks of Early Soviet Film - DVD boxset:
The Extraordinary Adventures o... Land of the Bolsheviks (1924)
The House on Trubnaya Square (1928)
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