Viktor Portnov

Fragment of an Empire

Director Frederick Ermler’s last silent feature and the last of four collaborations with actor Fiodor Nikitin. Nikitin plays an officer who spends a decade after the Great War as a shell-shocked amnesiac, until a glimpse of a woman through a train window sparks the return of his memory. He makes his way back to St. Petersburg, now Leningrad, a man out of time who struggles to make sense of the new society brought about by the revolution.

The Parisian Cobbler

Komsomol girl Katya Karnakova, a darling of the small provincial town Old Lopsha, is seriously smitten with a fellow Komsomol and does not even try to hide this from others. After some time as a result of their affair, she becomes pregnant.

Peasants

The peaceful life of an exemplary collective farm is being rent asunder by shortages and dissent, and a commissar is sent to uncover the source of the problems, unaware that their is actual sabotage involved.

Song of Happiness

A coming-of-age story about a flute-playing boy (Yyvan Kyrla) from the Mari people, a national minority who lived near the Volga, and how he is educated by the Soviet state.

On Vacation

Famous polar explorer Ivan Lebedev arrives at a southern health resort. There he meets his friend, renowned pilot Mikhail Lavrov. To avoid unwanted attention, the two decide to conceal their professions. However, their strange behavior arouses suspicion among those around them...