Aelita: Queen of Mars

Aelita: Queen of Mars 1924

5.90

A young man travels to Mars in a rocket ship, where he leads a popular uprising against the ruling group with the support of Queen Aelita, who has fallen in love with him after watching him through a telescope.

1924

Dzhulbars

Dzhulbars 1935

1.00

A squad of rebels attacks a peaceful caravan, and the old guide Sho-Murad and his granddaughter Pery find themselves in captivity of the bandits. Border guards and a sheepdog Dzhulbars repulse prisoners and neutralize enemies.

1935

Accidental Meeting

Accidental Meeting 1936

5.80

A supposedly ordinary woman’s personal triumph and tragedy is explored in Igor Savchenko’s 1936 Sluchainaya Vstrecha (Accidental Meeting). Irina – the best shock worker in a provincial children’s factory – develops a relationship with the newly arrived and charming physical culture instructor named Grisha. Soon we learn that Irina is pregnant. Disappointed and angry on hearing her news, Grisha asks her about what will now happen to all their dreams.

1936

Accordion

Accordion 1934

3.20

Igor Savchenko's Accordion (Garmon', 1934) was adapted from a poem by A. Zharov. This film sheds light on the reasons why the mass song came into being. In it, the country boy Timosha stops playing the accordion after being chosen leader of the local Komsomol. When he understands that he must compete with the sad kulak songs played by Tlskliby ("Mournful"), he recognizes his mistake in abandoning his accordion, and in the end he gathers the other youths around him with his lively and merry songs.

1934

The Golden Lake

The Golden Lake 1935

1

A geological expedition looking for gold in the Russian taiga is beset by a gang of thieves.

1935

St. Jorgen's Day

St. Jorgen's Day 1930

5.30

The priests, stock market officials, and police conspire to squeeze income out of pilgrims come to see relics of a Christ like figure. A pair of con men try to pass of a resurrected saint.

1930

Morozko

Morozko 1924

5.00

Based on the Russian fairy tale Father Frost.

1924

Outskirts

Outskirts 1933

6.20

In a remote Russian village during World War I, colourful and nuanced characters experience divided loyalties: family loyalty vs. personal desire, nationalism vs. transcendent humanism.

1933

Storm Over Asia

Storm Over Asia 1928

6.43

In 1918 a young and simple Mongol herdsman and trapper is cheated out of a valuable fox fur by a European capitalist fur trader. Ostracized from the trading post, he escapes to the hills after brawling with the trader who cheated him. In 1920 he becomes a Soviet partisan, and helps the partisans fight for the Soviets against the occupying British army. However he is captured by the British when they try to requisition cattle from the herdsmen at the same time as the commandant meets with a reincarnated Grand Lama. After the trapper is shot, the army discovers an amulet that suggests he is a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. They find him still alive, so the army restores his health and plans to use him as the head of a puppet regime. The trapper is thus thrust into prominence as he is placed in charge of the puppet government. By the end, however, the "puppet" turns against his masters in an outburst of fury.

1928

Marionettes

Marionettes 1934

4.20

The Soviet Union wants more influence in Europe and decides to get more power by giving the nation of Boufferia a new king, an easy to handle drunkard, because they don't have enough power over the current king.

1934

Two-Buldi-Two

Two-Buldi-Two 1929

7.00

Naturally, the circus milieu of 2 Buldy 2 (1929) encourages stunts. A father and son, both clowns, are to perform together for the first time, but the civil war separates them, and the elder Buldy, tempted for a moment to acquiesce to the White forces, casts his lot with the revolution. At the climax Buldy Jr. escapes the Whites thanks to flashy trampoline and trapeze acrobatics; the gaping enemy soldiers forget to shoot.

1929

Without Dowry

Without Dowry 1937

5.80

Ogudolova, unlike her sisters, refuses to obey her mother's wish that she marry a wealthy old man in order to collect a dowry

1937

Forty Hearts

Forty Hearts 1931

5.80

The new power stations are beating like hearts to the pulse of modernisation. At gigantic expense and effort, the Soviet Union is rapidly industrialised. The state plan foresees the construction of forty power-generation centres across the country. However, the people must first be enlightened about the nature and use of electrical current. Horses and tractors, households and industry, nature and the world of work, neon signs and the construction of power stations all depend on this miraculous new source of energy. The famous Soviet director Lev Kuleshov masterfully realises this project with documentary shots, acted scenes, and lots of creative trick sequences.

1931

Three Songs About Lenin

Three Songs About Lenin 1934

6.03

This documentary, made up of 3 episodes, is based on three songs sung by anonymous people in Soviet Russia about Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

1934

The House on Trubnaya

The House on Trubnaya 1928

6.25

Life is short and full of oppression, but that doesn't mean Parasha can't find love and laughter when she leaves her country home to take a job as a maid in the overcrowded, overworked, and underpaid world in the big city.

1928

By the Bluest of Seas

By the Bluest of Seas 1936

6.30

Two men shipwrecked on an island in the Caspian Sea are saved by members of a collective farm, where they work on its fishing boats and woo the young woman leading the fishermen.

1936

Ranks and People

Ranks and People 1929

5.40

From his early silent works, the great Russian film director, Herr Yakov Protazanov, made literary adaptations from equally great Russian writers, as is the case with "Chiny I Lyudi" ( Ranks And People ) (1929) in which three short stories by Chekhov, "Anna On The Neck", "Death Of A Petty Official" and "Chameleon" were assembled for the silent screen.

1929

Horizon

Horizon 1932

1

A young Lyova travels with the hope of ascent from Czarist Russia to New York. Disappointed, he returns to the young Soviet Union and is glad to have found a simple work.

1932