Arsenal (1929)

A soldier returns to Kiev after surviving a train crash and encounters clashes between nationalists and collectivists.

Director:

Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Writer:

Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Stars:

Semyon Svashenko, Georgi Khorkov, Amvrosi Buchma

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview:
Semyon Svashenko	...	Timosh, the Ukrainian (as S. Svashenko)
Georgi Khorkov	...	A Red Army Soldier (as G. Khorkov)
Amvrosi Buchma	...	Laughing-Gassed German Soldier (as A. Buchma)
Dmitri Erdman	...	A German Officer (as D. Erdman)
Sergey Petrov	...	A German Soldier (as S. Petrov)
M. Mikhajlovsky	...	A Nationalist (as Mikhajlovsky)
Aleksandr Evdakov	...	Tsar Nikolas II (as A. Evdakov)

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:

silent film | soviet union | 1910s | communist revolution | revolution | 

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

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: European New Wave (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?

Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Release Date:

9 November 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

Арсенал

Filming Locations:

Odessa Film Studio, Odessa, Ukraine

Company Credits

Production Co:

Vseukrainske Foto Kino Upravlinnia (VUFKU)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

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

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1