Arsenal (1929)

Set in the bleak aftermath and devastation of the World War I, a recently demobbed soldier, Timosh, returns to his hometown Kiev, after having survived a train wreck. His arrival coincides ... See full summary »

Director:

Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Writer:

Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Stars:

Semyon Svashenko, Amvrosi Buchma, Georgi Khorkov

Cast

Credited cast:
Semyon Svashenko	...	Timosh, the Ukrainian
Amvrosi Buchma	...	Laughing-Gassed Soldier
Georgi Khorkov	...	A Red Army Soldier (as G. Khorkov)
Dmitri Erdman	...	A German Officer
Sergey Petrov	...	A German Soldier
M. Mikhajlovsky	...	A Nationalist
A. Yevdakov	...	Tsar Nikolas II
Nikolai Kuchinsky	...	Petliura
O. Merlatti	...	Sadovsky (as F. Merlatti)
Nikolai Nademsky	...	Official
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Luciano Albertini	...	Raffaele
Pyotr Masokha
T. Wagner
B. Zagorsky

Storyline

Set in the bleak aftermath and devastation of the World War I, a recently demobbed soldier, Timosh, returns to his hometown Kiev, after having survived a train wreck. His arrival coincides with a national celebration of Ukrainian freedom, but the festivities are not to last as a disenchanted.

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Plot Keywords:

train wreck | soldier | russian army | one word title | russian soldier | 

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian Ukrainian

Release Date:

9 November 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

Arsenaal

Company Credits

Production Co:

VUFKU

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min 90 min (Copy with French subtitles at Brussels Musée du Cinéma)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

In a scene early in the film, a soldier lies dead, covered with sand, but the sand can be seen to rise and fall with the actor's breathing.

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Connections

Featured in The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Episode #1.12 (2011)

User Reviews

One of the 1920's Most Modernists Films - a Masterpiece

Don't be discouraged by this Soviet film's age or obscurity - it is one of the finest movies ever made, and it stands alongside Carl Theodore Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc," as the most modernist film of the 1920's. This is a spectacular visual achievement, and its visionary conception of cinema is moderinism that we've still failed to catch up with. Unlike most recognized masterpieces of Soviet silent cinema (e.g. "The Battleship Potempkin," "Earth," "The End of St. Petersburg," etc.), however, "Arsenal" is a surprisingly approachable film, and its strangeness and abstraction are consistently fascinating. Originally intended as a propaganda film, "Arsenal" is the second component of director Alexander Dovzhenko's "Ukraine Trilogy," and it details an episode in the Russian Civil War (~1918) in which the Kiev Arsenal workers aided the Bolshevik army against the ruling Central Rada. Dovzhenko's approach is somewhat similar to Sergei Eisentein, in that he relied heavily on montage, but his pace was less frenetic, and his Expressionism was more exaggerated. As detailed in the film's academic commentary, Dovzhenko was previously a political cartoonist, and you can see traces of this background in "Arsenal." The characters in this film are caricatures, sometimes grotesque and sometimes funny. Similarly, there is a strangeness and remoteness in "Arsenal," which makes the film's few intentionally lucid passages quite dreamlike. The DVD commentary is concise and informative, and a terrific primer for the first time viewing. If you have any interest in silent cinema, modernism, or film as art, "Arsenal" is a film you SHOULD NOT MISS. ---|--- Was this review helpful?