The Death Ray

Sasha

A Russian woman tells the tragic story of her life.

Our Cinema

Timur's Oath

The continuation of a story about a young boy Timur and his team who are living in a small Moscow suburb during the years before WWII - now during the war.

The Happy Canary

Actress Brio working in a cafe "The Happy Canary", does not suspect that her new acquaintances Brianski and Lugovec are Communists sent by an underground committee to fight the enemy's counter-intelligence.

Smelchak

Propaganda film directed by Mikhail Narokov and Nikandr Turkin. Partially lost.

Two-Buldi-Two

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.

Horizon

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.

Siberians

Two six-graders are trying to find the Stalin's pipe and return it to the owner.

By the Law

After a man kills two members of his Yukon gold prospecting team, the other two surviving members struggle to keep him subdued for the next several months until they can turn him over to the law.

We from the Urals

A story about two teenagers and their life during WWII in Urals district of Russia.

Forty Hearts

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.

Kuleshov Effect

An experiment in editing. This entry refers to both the initial, likely lost 1919 experiment, created using footage of Ivan Mosjoukine, and the later surviving recreation featuring two unknown actors.

Incident on a Volcano

Andrei Latonin had jumped with a parachute many times before, but on the day of the holiday he got scared and stayed in the cockpit of the plane. Deeply upset by his failure, Latonin decides to leave his homeland forever and joins a steamship as a sailor. On the way, Andrei meets an expedition group heading for the crater of an active volcano and joins the scientists.

Your Friend

Khokhlova, a girl-reporter on a Moscow newpaper, falls in love with factory manager Petrovsky. To her he's the epitome of manliness--virile, decisive, strong-minded. Conversely, she rejects the sensitive, diffident editor Vasilchikov, who's in love with her, as unmanly. Her infatuation affects her work, and she is fired.

For Happiness

Since Zoya Verenskaya's husband passed away ten years ago, she has been devoted to her daughter Lee. At present, Lee is in poor health, and she is in danger of losing her eyesight. Zoya's suitor Dmitry wants to get married, but Zoya is determined to wait until Lee is better. Then, on a vacation in the Crimea, they learn Lee's true feelings for Dmitry, and suddenly all of their lives are thrown into turmoil.

The Kuleshov Effect

An excellent 1969 documentary, S. Raitburt’s The Kuleshov Effect, made about a year before Lev Kuleshov died, and interviewing him at length, both about his filmmaking and his far lengthier career as a teacher (including some fascinating remarks about Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo). Also interviewed is the father of Russian Formalism, Viktor Shklovsky, who worked with Kuleshov as a screenwriter on a Jack London adaptation, By the Law, in 1926.