The first sound film for children “Torn Shoes” was released in 1933 and won the world audience. It’s about kids from a poor family living in some European country (looks like pre-nazi Germany); two brothers have one pair of shoes for both. The author of the film Margarita Barskaya was proclaimed the leading director of child cinema. In 1937 she was repressed and her name was taken off the Soviet cinematography.Read More »
USSR
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Margarita Barskaya – Rvanye bashmaki AKA Torn Shoes (1933)
1931-1940DramaMargarita BarskayaUSSR -
Ali Khamraev – Triptikh AKA Triptych (1979)
1971-1980Ali KhamraevArthouseDramaUSSRTriptych is the story of three women: an illiterate girl who wants to build a house, a school teacher representing authority who goes to a northern Uzbekistan village where traditions and strict Moslem practices have kept the people subjugated, and an old woman kidnapped in her youth by a poor peasant thereby making her his property.Read More »
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Semyon Timoshenko – Napoleon-gaz (1925)
1921-1930Sci-FiSemyon TimoshenkoSilentSoviet silent cinemaUSSRSynopsis:A squadron of American warplanes, armed with gas developed by Corsican chemist Gannimer (dubbed “Napoleon Gas”) flies to Leningrad. American workers inform soviet comrades about the impending catastrophe. But the air attack on the city has already begun, and the assault troops of the enemy capture one suburb of the city after the other. The Red Army is organizing the defense and reflects the attack of the enemy with gas-armed drones
… All these events turn out to be a dream of a girl from Komsomol, who came to the farm to agitate for Aviahim.Read More »
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Boris Ivchenko – Annychka (1969)
1961-1970Boris IvchenkoDramaUSSRWarA wartime melodrama shot through with the folkloric magic and vivid imagination that defined Ukraine’s so-called “poetic cinema” of the 1960s. In the dark days of Nazi occupation, a young girl native to the Carpathian mountains falls in love with a wounded Soviet partisan. Their affair sets in motion a tragic chain of events, as her family turns against her with shocking results. Borys Ivchenko’s roving camera and the striking performances of Lyubov Rumyantseva, Grigore Grigoriu, and Ukrainian screen icon Ivan Mykolaichuk make this an classic of Ukrainian cinema.Read More »
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Aivars Freimanis – Puika (1977)
1971-1980Aivars FreimanisDramaUSSRQuote:
Based on the novel by Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš, “Puika” tells the story of Latvian peasants at the end of the 19th century through the eyes of a poetic village boy Yantsisa.Read More » -
Eldar Shengelaia – Samanishvilis Dedinatsvali AKA Stepmother Samanishvili (1977)
1971-1980DramaEldar ShengelaiaUSSRМачеха Саманишвили / სამანიშვილის დედინაცვალი
Impoverished old nobleman Bekina insists on marrying a wife, but his son Platon does not want to have sharer in father’s inheritance. Platon finds two times widowed and childless bride for Bekina, but a fate makes fun of him.Read More »
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Amo Bek-Nazaryan – Dom na vulkane AKA House on the Volcano (1929)
1921-1930Amo Bek-NazaryanDramaSilentUSSRQuote:
To celebrate the centenary of Armenian film, we present a new restoration of this neglected silent classic by Hamo Bek-Nazaryan, the founding father of the nation’s cinema. A co-production of the Armenian and Azerbaijani national studios, this historical melodrama recounts the brutal suppression of an oil workers’ strike in pre-revolutionary Baku. Bek-Nazaryan’s mastery of the silent screen is on full display here, from the striking use of close-ups and densely-plotted narrative intrigue to the show-stopping devastation of the finale. Presented with a new score by Juliet MerchantRead More » -
Ali Khamraev – Chelovek ukhodit za ptitsami AKA The Man Who Loves the Birds (1975)
1971-1980Ali KhamraevArthouseUSSRA young Uzbekistani man, whose widower father was a drunkard, finally finds the grown-up mentoring he craves when his father dies and he meets an old man who teaches him about the necessity of resisting tyranny. ~ Clarke Fountain, RoviRead More »
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Vladimir Tarasov – Tir AKA Shooting Range (1979)
1971-1980AnimationPoliticsUSSRVladimir TarasovThis short uses Zap Comix-style imagery to present a fable of an unemployed young American who finds a job in a Times Square shooting gallery — as a target. The evil capitalist eventually gets the idea of letting the boy build a family, and employing them all as targets to be shot at.Read More »